HighRiver

The Royal Alexandra Hospital Foundation has a new lottery that will help several local health centres.

The Split the Pot Lottery is a way for people to support hospitals and healthcare foundations across the province.

"Split the Pot Lottery is a new provincial-wide initiative where 30 hospitals and health foundations and trusts are all getting involved to support this program," explained the Fund Development and Communications Officer with the High River District Health Care Foundation, Cathy Couey.

Kite flyers in Foothills County rejoice.

Environment Canada issued a Wind Warning for Foothills County today (Oct. 4), with strong winds expected to develop this afternoon.

Even though the wind will slow down later this evening, wind gusts upwards of 90 km/hr are expected during the day.

As a result, loose objects could be tossed around, potentially causing injury or damage to property.

Wind Warnings are issued only when the winds pose a significant risk.

With the departure of Colten Hayes, who's joined the Old Grizzlys of the AJHL as an assistant coach, the High River Flyers have brought in Jeff Gardner to assume the role of head coach.

Gardner has been the head coach for the Flyers in a previous two-year stint and was given the opportunity to come back to build the team within his vision.

The 3rd annual Brian Chipchase Memorial Show N' Shine in High River was another huge success.

853 vehicles were registered in this year's show with many returnees and some new ones.

Folks drove from all over Alberta, B.C., Saskatchewan, and even as far as Ontario made the trek for one of the last premier car shows of the year.

The $20 registration fee goes back to the River City Classics car club which then distributes most of it back to non-profit groups in the area.

The 'Superman House' in High River is set to reopen as Mystic Manor today (Oct. 4).

National Fire Prevention Week is coming up from October 6-12.

Established by the National Fire Prevention Association in 1992, it always lands on the week of October 8 to commemorate the Great Chicago Fire, which killed approximately 300 people and burned an estimated 17,400 structures, or roughly 2,100 acres.

This year's theme is "Smoke alarms: Make them work for you!"

Okotoks' Fire Chief Trevor Brice says checking smoke alarms regularly is a good baseline practice, ideally once a month.

The first-ever Repair Cafe in High River fixed a lot of items and brought thanks and gratitude from the community.

Friends of the Library member Nick Salmon organized the event after being inspired by ones held in Okotoks.

Several strong solar flares from the last few days could provide another good look at the northern lights over the next few nights.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Centre (NOAA) has reported several powerful solar flares over the last three days, including an X7 flare on Tuesday and an X9 flare on Thursday, sending coronal mass ejections (CME) toward Earth.

They've issued a G3 geomagnetic storm watch from October 4-6 as a result.

Vulcan County is no longer under any kind of fire restriction or ban.

As of Thursday (Oct. 3) morning, the latest Fire Restriction has been removed.

The restriction had been in place since August, after it was downgraded from a Fire Ban that from July 23.

Now that the restriction has been lifted, fire permits will be issued, and campfires and charcoal briquettes are once again allowed in the backcountry and random camping areas.

Government business has been put on indefinite pause in the House of Commons and the Conservatives say it will stay that way until the Liberals hand over documents related to misspent government dollars.

Last week, Speaker Greg Fergus ruled that the government "clearly did not fully comply" with an order from the House to provide documents related to a now-defunct foundation responsible for doling out hundreds of millions of federal dollars for green technology projects.