Wow. That was quick. Did 2011 fly by for anyone else?

While there’s still a bit more than a week left in the year, it’s pretty much over from a newspaper editor’s point of view. Next week is our Year-in-Review edition so this will be the last Last Word of 2011.

I’ve been busy compiling some of the best photos and most interesting stories of the past 12 months for next week’s paper, so I’ve had a lot of different things on my mind lately. I couldn’t decide on one topic to write about here, so instead I present a scattershot of my recent thoughts.

Dog Park

This issue has been brewing somewhat quietly among local dog owners but it’s set to boil over early in the new year.

With the groundbreaking for the new school set for 2012, the current off-leash park’s days are numbered. Dog owners are starting to get a little antsy about where they will be able to take their four-legged friends once the current off-leash area becomes a construction zone.

Some proposed locations for a temporary dog park have been floated, but most of the dog owners I’ve talked to are none too impressed.

A number of potential spots on Sleepy Hollow Road have been identified but the common – and, in my view, legitimate – complaint against this area is that it is too far from the centre of town. Parents, in particular, are uncomfortable having their kids venture that far from home and having to cross Connaught Drive and the train tracks in order to take the family pet to the park.

Recreational areas are typically better when they are centrally located. Moving the dog park from the residential area of town to the industrial area would certainly be a step backwards.

Hopefully it’s something both the municipality and Parks Canada can work on together in order to find a better solution. Otherwise they’ll have a lot of howling mad citizens on their hands. 

A growing group on Facebook – “Jasper Bark in the Park” – is also starting to get riled up about this issue. Expect to hear a lot more about it in the new year.

Santas Anonymous

Coming from outside of Alberta, I didn’t know what Santas Anonymous was. But I soon discovered it’s just another name for a type of seasonal charity that I’ve been familiar with for a long time.

In Winnipeg there is a very similar operation called the Christmas Cheer Board. I still remember volunteering there as a child with my dad, helping to deliver hampers to families around the city who could use a little support during the holidays. It was great to see the joy it brought to parents and children alike.

It’s also been great to see Jasper step up to support Santas Anonymous again this year. Between the money raised through various fundraisers and the items donated at drop boxes throughout town, volunteers must have been pretty busy this week as they packed hampers at the McCready Centre. Today is their last scheduled day for packaging up all the food, toys and other goodies to give to local families.

Santas Anonymous co-ordinator Ann Thomas told me this week that more than 90 per cent of the organization’s budget is allocated within Jasper.

“That was one of my goals ... to keep the majority of the money in town,” she said.

Helmets

You may recall that, in my previous Last Word, I pledged to buy a helmet for skiing after hearing about Brittany Howelko’s serious head injury while snowboarding. 

Well, a couple of days after that column came out, I had to cover the grand opening of the new lifts at Marmot Basin. I was quite busy that week and didn’t have time to research and purchase a helmet before the event, so I attended the ski hill that day as I have done for my entire life – helmetless.

I was a bit worried that someone would notice and call me out for breaking my pledge. Sure enough, as I was standing below the new Paradise chair trying to get a front-page photo, a woman riding the lift yelled down at me: “Where’s your helmet? I read your editorial!”

I didn’t catch her name, but if she’s reading this, I hope she’ll be glad to know that I have since purchased a well-fitting, protective lid.

Thanks for keeping me honest.

DISCLAIMER: The Last Word is an opinion column, it is meant to provoke thought and debate. As such, any opinions written here are the writer’s own and do not reflect the viewpoint of any other Fitzhugh staff member or the directors of the Jasper Media Group Inc.