Ryan Bater News Today

He said “in the last couple of weeks, a person or persons has been accessing the north shore trail with a 4x4 vehicle and has been tearing up the cross country ski trails.” The Battlefords River Valley Board has been aware of the issue and attempts have been made to fix up the trails after the damage. But Bater noted it was difficult. “Once the base of the trail is gone it’s hard to develop again,” he said. Bater said the activity of driving vehicles down the Battlefords River Val...

But while COVID-19 was something that caught a lot of people by surprise, the pandemic was something the city saw coming. As early as January, the events in China and elsewhere around the world where the still-unnamed novel coronavirus was wreaking havoc were noticed by city officials. Before the pandemic was even declared in March, the city was working on a pandemic plan and they had also struck a deal with Battleford for a joint administrative committee to deal with the pandemic response. ...

For the Battlefords a case could be made that it was our worst year ever — worse than even the cryptosporidium and oil spill years — and not just because of the COVID-19 pandemic that prompted shutdowns, economic devastation, and no shortage of loss of life in the province and world. It was a year in which one event after another ended up postponed or called off. It was also a year of devastating tragedy: the loss of a beloved Battleford NHL player, a tragic local murder-suicide, and ongo...