• Foothills County reversed course on a project to install rooftop solar panels at the Scott Seaman Sports Rink. After narrowly voting in favour of the project in March, council scrapped the project by a 4-3 vote after numerous objections were raised by some councillors.
• Some new dirt was dug up on a decades-old missing person investigation in Foothills County just south of Bragg Creek. For several days, Calgary Police Service officers searched the ground and dug through the soil at a rural property along Highway 762.
• Four Okotoks residents were named to be painted by its first artist in residence during Month of the Artist. In a meet-and-greet event at the Okotoks Public Library, three influential members of the community were announced: Ron Schreiber, Lori Chibry and Marg Cox. A fourth subject, Mayor Tanya Thorn, was chosen by artist in residence Tanya Zakarow.
• Enchanted Okotoks returned for two days, turning downtown into a live action fantasy video game. Participants in the all-ages event found actors, quests and themed products, all linked together by a central quest, a new twist born out of a partnership with Calgary-based EarthMMO, an augmented-reality mobile game.
• One of the most unheralded jobs in hockey got a much-deserved spotlight in Okotoks with the launch of the Western Canada Professional Hockey Scouts Foundation’s Scouts Wall of Honour at Okotoks Centennial Arenas. The launch was held in conjunction with the non-profit group’s first banquet, the Celebrity Roast of Ron MacLean.
• An Okotoks daycare was forced to close on two occasions as a result of an E. coli outbreak. VIK Academy, which was part of an original round of closures along with almost a dozen Calgary daycares, had re-opened but was closed again by Alberta Health Services three days later as a precaution pending test results. It re-opened three days later.
• Okotoks council gave the go-ahead for a new skateboard park to be constructed near Foothills Composite High School. Howard Park was deemed the best site after several locations were considered in the south end of town. Design work is expected this winter with construction on the $750,000 park to start in 2024.
• A capacity crowd took in the Battle of Okotoks, football edition, under the Friday Night Lights as the Holy Trinity Academy Knights scored a 34-24 win over the host Foothills Falcons. The early season tilt saw both teams come in undefeated, but it was the Knights that improved their record to 4-0.
• With usage at an all-time high, the Community Food Drive hosted by the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints came at an opportune time for the Okotoks Food Bank. The annual event set a record with 34,000 pounds of food collected. Executive director Pamela McLean said the influx was much needed as the cost of living crisis is stressing inventory levels.
• National Day for Truth and Reconciliation was marked in Okotoks with the unveiling of a memorial in Ethel Tucker Centennial Park. The memorial honours residential school victims, survivors and others affected by the system as well as missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. The memorial is a sacred place where Indigenous and non-Indigenous people can leave offerings.
• Cavalry FC locked up the Canadian Premier League regular season title with a 1-0 road victory over York United. Winning the CPL Shield gave the team home field advantage in the playoff semifinal and gave it automatic entry in the 2024 Concacaf Champions Cup.
• For the second year in a row, the Brendan Bottcher rink went to an extra end to upend rival Team Kevin Koe to repeat as ATB Okotoks Classic champions at the Okotoks Curling Club. After a measurement was required in the eighth end to give Koe a point to force the extra end, Bottcher used hammer to draw for the win.
