The Passing of Keith Wilkinson
Remembered fondly as “Mr. Airdrie,” Keith Wilkinson died suddenly on January 2 leaving some big shoes to fill in the community.
Wilkinson seemed to have his hand in everything in the community, and was always ready to help or to boost the city he loved and called home in any way he could. He was a founding member of 100 Airdrie Men Who Give A Damn, a group dedicated to fundraising for local charities. He was also heavily involved in the Airdrie Lions Club, the Airdrie Chamber of Commerce, and helped organize events like the Canada Day and Santa Claus parades.
Wilkinson also was one of the driving forces behind the “Raise the Rinks” campaign, which aimed to raise funds for construction of the Genesis Place Twin Arenas project. His family recently instituted the “Mr. Airdrie Memorial Award” in his honour to recognize local community leaders like Keith.
Reconciliation Efforts
Throughout the year the City took several strong steps toward recognizing the region’s local Métis and Indigenous history and paying respects to the legacy of the Métis and Indigenous peoples who still live in the region today.
Besides, National Truth and Reconciliation Day efforts like the Orange Shirt Day footprints initiative and the an Indigenous flag raising day at City Hall, the City also helped co-sponsor a series of Elder Talks with Circle Connections For Reconciliation, facilitated a theatrical production at Bert Church Live Theatre entitled, “New Blood– A Story of Reconciliation,” and accepted a private commission of a new statue for Nose Creek Park called “Iethka Stoney Grandmother’s Teachings,” which was unveiled this fall.
The City also helped sponsor its second annual celebration for National Indigenous Peoples Day on June 21, which also took place in Nose Creek Park.
Creation of the Airdrie Arts Council
This one might have gone a little under the radar for most, but it was a significant step forward for the arts community in Airdrie as a whole. Airdrie city council approved $110,000 for the creation of the new body at its April 3 meeting. The funding would provide seed money for the new non-profit to pay for various overhead expenses during the arts council’s first year of operation, including legal fees, meeting costs, marketing, communications and website development, and remuneration for a paid executive director.
“The benefits of an independent entity are many, including being better able to act as a connector and gathering point for the public sector, businesses, artists, cultural programmers and residents; having access to and being eligible for more sources of funding than are available to the City; providing more direct and sustainable support to citizen artists and culture programmers during economic ebbs and flows than a municipality may be able to; having more flexibility with the ability to be more agile in communicating and promoting art and culture to residents; and finally, being in a position to directly include artists and culture programmers in their strategic direction-setting,” said Christine Waldner, who sat on the Arts Council Assessment Committee (ACAC) which recommended the establishment of the Airdrie Arts Council to city councillors.
Environmental Efforts
The City of Airdrie made a concerted effort to put the steward in stewardship throughout the course of the year by sponsoring a series of talks and initiatives aimed at making the city a more nature-friendly place. Whether that was sponsoring talks on greater bee and other pollinator friendly actions residents could take, or xeriscaping in gardens to save water and make them more sustainable for homeowners, the City not only talked the talk, it largely walked the walk by actually creating more pollinator friendly gardens or utilizing xeriscaping in the City’s public areas.
The City also highlighted its efforts to create more community orchards and fruit harvesting activities for local residents to partake in, and backed away, under some public pressure, from its beaver euthanization efforts in Nose Creek by creating its new Beaver Assessment and Management Plan, which emphasized non-lethal efforts to control the population or mitigate its impacts on the watershed.
New Library Groundbreaking
After much discussion, public debate and trimmed back budgets in 2022, the City finally broke ground with much fanfare on the new Airdrie Public Library building on Aug 21.
Dignitaries and employees from the City of Airdrie, the Airdrie Public Library board, Gibbs Gage Architects and Colliers Project Leaders were on-site at the former decommissioned fire hall on Aug, 21 to break ground on the future $65-million library and multi-use facility on Main Street. The groundbreaking ceremony began with a land acknowledgement from Blackfoot Elder Carolla Fox Hanley, followed by speeches from Mayor Peter Brown and Airdrie Public Library board chair Daniel Nelles.
“Ground-breaking has been a long time coming,” Mayor Peter Brown told the crowd in attendance on the 21st. “It's not just the beginning of the construction project but the realization of many years of hard work to create such a shared vision. We believe this facility will be a landmark destination that offers a wide variety of opportunities, both indoor and outdoor, for citizens and visitors to gather, connect, and learn, and as a result, bring energy and vibrancy to Airdrie's downtown.”
The new facility is scheduled to open in the summer of 2025.
Citizens Who Made A Splash in 2023
Probably no artist in Airdrie had a more remarkable year then singer/ songwriter Kyle McKearney. McKearney’s album “Traveller’s Lament” chalked up big wins at YYC Music Awards and the Canadian Country Music Awards, he also got some Grammy longlist consideration, as well as nominations for Country Music Alberta Awards 2023 and the Canadian Folk Music Awards.
Airdrie resident Paul Hamilton generated a lot of blue collar excitement in the city when he became a contestant on popular handyman competition show “Tough as Nails” back in July. Hamilton, whose story as a cancer survivor inspired many with his gritty effort on the show, was ultimately “punched out” sixth in the competition.
Perhaps more of a sports story than a community story, but an Airdrie-area man, Scott Milton, became a surprising internet sensation when he and his canine partner Bob won the Calgary Stampede’s World Stock Dog Championship on July 12. Scott’s interview with Airdrie City View, where he talked about the strong relationship he and Bob shared in the arena, seemed to strike a strong chord with readers–not only in Airdrie but, in that pre-Meta ban era, received tens of thousands of views and and hundreds of shares from across Alberta and western Canada.
