2020 year in review: February

By Herald on December 29, 2020.

Participants in the annual Polar Plunge jump into the icy waters of Henderson Lake in February to help raise funds for Alberta Special Olympics programs. Herald file photo by Greg Bobinec @GBobinecHerald

The Herald looks back to the stories that made headlines over the past year with a month by month series running through this week to the New Year:

FEBRUARY
Griffiths takes over as chairman of police commission
Simon Griffiths was acclaimed as the new chair of the Lethbridge Police Commission after Peter Deys stepped down from the role ending his commission term.

Polar Plunge raises funds for Special Olympics
First responders from across southern Alberta joined members of the community to take a chilly plunge into the waters of Henderson Lake for the eighth annual Lethbridge Polar Plunge. The Law Enforcement Torch Run organized the Plunge as one of their many efforts to raise money for Special Olympics Alberta athletes.

Dog poisonings investigated
Lethbridge Police are investigating a report that two dogs died last weekend after being poisoned in a southside yard. The owner of two large-breed dogs reported the animals had been poisoned in their yard along the 400 block of 28 Street South sometime during the night.

Police probe deadly shooting on westside
The Lethbridge Police Service has confirmed it is likely dealing with its first homicide in over two years. On Feb. 6 at 10:30 p.m. police received a call from someone at an acreage on the 200 block of University Avenue West reporting a 34-year-old man had been shot at that location.

Longtime MP Thacker dead at 79
Blaine Thacker, Q.C., former Member of Parliament for Lethbridge-Foothills and later the renamed riding of Lethbridge, died in the city at the age of 79. A Progressive Conservative, the Taber native was first elected to Parliament in 1979, serving in the Lethbridge-Foothills riding until 1988. After it was renamed, he served as MP for Lethbridge until 1993 when he retired from politics.

Herald makes historic donation to Galt
The Lethbridge Herald donated its entire microfilm collection, which are scaled-down reproductions of documents meant to store, read or print, from 1905 to 2019 to the Galt Museum & Archives. The vault at the Galt is climate controlled for better preservation while Galt staff can optimize a system to digitize pages for people.

U of L, LC preparing to take budget hit
Both of Lethbridge’s post-secondary institutions will take an enormous hit when new cuts announced in the provincial budget set it. The province said it will cut post-secondary base funding by as much as five per cent, or maybe even higher, to post-secondary institutions this year.

Alberta budget could have been worse
Mayor Chris Spearman said the provincial budget is not as severe as it could have been for municipalities. However, Spearman was disappointed the province was imposing a property tax hike on the citizens of Lethbridge.

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