Sherwood Park Property Blog

Canadian National Railway Sneaks Railway Yard Next To Strathcona Residential Area

It seems that sometime in the early 1900s the Canadian National Railway selected a site in rural Strathcona to build a railway yard. Roughly 100 years later, the land, coincidentally leased to Imperial Oil, is showing signs of that railway yard being built. The 5.2 acre site will eventually hold 225 empty petroleum rail cars that will be constantly moving in and out of the yard.

The problem is that 100 years ago, the site had no neighbours. Now the proposed rail yard is almost in the backyard of residents. These residents are upset that they were given no notice and that the entire project came as one big surprise. Canadian National Railway could have done the math and figured out that the chances of anyone being alive to remember such an agreement is pretty slim.

Instead of assuring neighbours, Cando Contracting, the firm hired to do the work, just pulled out the age old documents and explained that in certain areas the railway right of way expands from the normal 100 feet to 350 feet to account for rail yards. And that, as far as they are concerned, is that.

Residents are understandably upset. The rail yard is being built not only in their backyard but next to two nature preserves. Who knows what effect all the noise, vibrations and possible air and ground pollution will have on wildlife or residents. Protests have been filed with several branches of the federal government, including the environmental sector.

Sherwood Park Property Blog

Double-Lung Transplant Recipient Overcomes H1N1

Edmontonian Michael Cunningham is calling himself amazingly lucky. The 52-year-old ex-commercial real estate appraiser has alpha 1-antitrypsin deficiency, a genetic disorder that impacts lung and liver cells.

Cunningham’s airways became blocked after developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a condition that includes asthma, bronchitis and emphysema. In November 2009, Cunningham was the recipient of a double-lung transplant, but on the day of his operation, he developed flu-like symptoms.

As a precaution, he received anti-viral medication and testing for H1N1, and staff then went ahead with the operation. Doctor Atul Humar, the University of Alberta’s Director of Transplant Infectious Diseases, said the hospital proceeded with the operation because Cunningham needed the lungs. Humar said transplants are a matter of weighing the risks of waiting against the benefits of the surgery.
The following day, Cunningham’s results showed positive for H1N1, and his new lungs also tested positive for H1N1. The donor’s test results were negative for H1N1.

The case is being called unique and was published in July 2010’s circulation of the Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation.
Since the operation, Cunningham’s H1N1 virus has cleared and Cunningham says his new lungs make him feel reborn. The only signs of his operation now are the scars on his chest. Cunningham said he tells people the four-inch sized marks of the surgery tubes are bullet holes, to make for a more interesting story.

Sherwood Park Property Blog

Sherwood Park Places In top 10 Of Alberta Venture Magazine Community Analysis

Alberta Venture Magazine has given Strathcona County a top ten ranking in their analysis of which communities are the best to do business in. The rapidly growing locale has strong ties with the energy industry, a great location with large amounts of available industrial acreage and a healthy, mobile population.

The panel at the magazine took several factors into account. Among them were tax rates, leasing and land costs, and ready availability of land. The recent recession has also caused potential employers to consider lifestyle, education and recreational concerns when choosing to locate a business venture. This also was used for the ranking. Even though the communities considered were of different sizes, the magazine did their best to make a fair comparison.

Strathcona has been in the top ten for four years running, so it appears they are doing something right. The Chamber of Commerce has over 1,000 members, quite a feat for a community that is not one of the largest. They are one of three in Alberta with this many members.

Surveys and ranking such as this are intended to make it easier for businesses and potential residents to make an educated choice about moving to an area. Competition is getting tighter across the province and that is spurring Strathcona and other communities to up their game on the attraction playing field.

Sherwood Park Property Blog

New Archbishop Jordan Catholic High School to Open September 2012

Work is afoot on the new Archbishop Jordan Catholic High School set to open in Sherwood Park in the fall of 2012. Plans for the school, which will accommodate up to 1,400 students, have been on the table for over three years. The pouring of foundations began this past spring, with the formal groundbreaking and blessing ceremony held last Friday.

The site was blessed by Bishop David Motiuk, a member of the Catholic Edmonton Epachy. Future students along with members of the Elk Island Catholic School board took part in the symbolic shovel turning and members of the current ABJ choir performed.

The original Archbishop Jordan Catholic High was built to hold 900 students and is at capacity. There are expected to be 1,100 students attending the new school in the first year. The new building will carry the same name of the Edmonton archbishop who served the community when the original school was constructed.

The school project is one of 14 to receive provincial funding. The location of the school, near a man made lake and close to the site of the future Sherwood Park Hospital has set precedence for new community friendly school design. The grounds of the school as well as a fitness facility will be shared with the general public.

Sherwood Park Property Blog

Young Science Conference Sparks Young People’s Imaginations

If you want kids to learn about math and science, you’ve got to make it fun…and in this modern world of computer everything, relevant. It is so much more thought provoking to use equations to build a robot or to build a solar powered car than to watch letters and numbers move about on a blackboard.

This past weekend, 170 students from the Elk Island and Sturgeon school districts stepped away from that blackboard and into the real world of science. In addition to the solar car and robot, students studied banana DNA, how to make computer circuits and what it takes to create a sonic boom. Some students even participated in a forensic science workshop including blood analysis and footstep tracking.

The Young Science Conference at the University of Alberta in Edmonton was the scene of the enlightenment. This annual gathering, which has been going strong for 19 years, has inspired many young people to go into fields such as palaeontology, robotics, wildlife science and environmental studies. Science, good science, is part textbook, part experimentation with a healthy dose of creative inspiration thrown in. Without that creative spark, would Thomas Edison even have tried to talk to someone an ocean away? Perhaps. Perhaps not.

Sherwood Park Property Blog

Alberta Game Farm to be Reborn as Wild Splendour Resort & Wildlife Sanctuary

Tigers and rhinos and bears, oh my! There once was a place in Strathcona County where you could go and see such creatures wandering about. The Alberta Game Farm, an Edmonton area icon through the 1960s and 1970s, was a popular school and family outing destination. Closed since 1978, it appears this provincial treasure just may be getting a new lease on life, and that Edmonton will be getting a world class resort in its backyard.

Tod Oeming, son of Al Oeming, the creator of the Alberta Game Farm wants to build the Wild Splendour Resort & Wildlife Sanctuary. The $60 million creation with its 510 guest units would welcome visitors to hike, bike ride, horseback ride, golf or bird watch. The property would also conserve 120 acres of environmentally sensitive land, including old growth aspen and black spruce forests and Lost Lake. This part of the resort would be managed by the Nature Conservancy of Canada.

Oeming notes that there are 173 identified species of birds and 43 species of mammals that are native to this area. The trick is to be environmentally friendly in the gradual construction/conservation of the 924 acres so that the resort will attract guests and be profitable yet have minimal impact on the natural world.

The key for both issues is to go slow, so the project will be built in stages with the first stage set to begin in 2012 if financial backing can be found. Oeming is offering founding partnership units to investors for this initial phase. So far only Edmonton investors have been approached, but Oeming is expected to travel across western Canada to promote his vision. Oeming has had experience in the hotel trade, and is already in negotiations with a major hotel chain to manage the hotel portion of the project.

Sherwood Park Property Blog

Mum Was The Word On The Promised Sherwood Hospital

Attendees of the Progressive Conservative Association’s annual meeting in Ardrossan this past Tuesday kept waiting to hear news about the promised Sherwood Park Hospital that was to begin construction this April. The month is almost over.

Gene Zwozdesky, Alberta’s new health minister, gave a 26 minute speech covering the plans to improve the province’s health care over the next three years. He spoke of the $2.5 billion allocated to that cause. But not a word on that hospital.

Until, in the question and answer period, the subject was brought up. The response? There will be more information in three to four weeks. That the project is going forward and Phase One is about to start. That the project just might require more money than in the current budget. It’s not just building the hospital; it’s running the facility after it is built.

Zwozdesky said to not lose hope, it will happen, but more slowly than originally promised. Iris Evans, the Sherwood Park MLA and the former finance minister was the person who made the April construction date promise.

The focus of the meeting was Alberta’s Health Care in general. Zwozdesky defended the province’s decision to amalgamate the nine health authorities into one entity, citing huge financial savings that could be funnelled back into the system. Other items that were discussed were senior drug programs and the intent of Alberta Health Care to encourage more doctors to live in rural settings.

Sherwood Park Property Blog

Edmonton, Sherwood Park Housing Markets Stabilizing

Despite an increase in mortgage rates and a decrease in inventory by 700 units, Edmonton and its surrounding area’s real estate market is stabilizing.

In the latest price survey, Edmonton and Sherwood Park both displayed signs of price increases over 2009 in various types of housing.

Standard two-storey house prices showed the highest city-wide increase in price by 5.2 per cent to $343,571. Standard condominium prices increased city-wide by 4.9 per cent to $208,833 and detached bungalow prices increased city-wide by 1 per cent to $308,857.

In Riverbend/Terwillegar, detached bungalows rose 2.6 per cent from $385,000 to $395,000, standard two storey homes rose 7 per cent from $346,850 to $370,000, and standard condos rose nine per cent from $200,000 to $218,000.

Clareview showed the highest prince increase two-storey homes of 27.9 percent, up to $390,000 from $305,000. Condos rose three per cent from $165,000 to $170,000, but bungalows remained stable at $250,000.

The Castledowns area and Sherwood Park both remained stable when compared to 2009. Castledowns detached bungalows stayed at $260,000, two-storey homes stayed at $315,000 and condominiums stayed at $195,000. Sherwood Park two-storey homes remained stable at $340,000, as did condominiums at $280,000.

I believe that the increases and stability show that buyers are becoming more confident in the market, a positive trend for Canada’s recovering economy.

Sherwood Park Property Blog

Alberta Looks Into Campaign Contribution Legislation For Local Governments

Political candidates that are intending to run in one of Edmonton’s municipal elections later this fall may have some new rules to contend with. They are facing possible caps on the amount of money an individual could contribute to a candidate’s campaign.

If Bill 9 passes in the provincial legislature then the Local Authorities Election Act would be changed. Individual monetary contributions would be limited to $5000. The bill, introduced by MLA Jeff Johnson from Athabasca-Redwater, is the second attempt at provincial control over local elections.

The first go round, initiated last spring, angered some local politicians such as Mayor Stephen Mandel of Edmonton, because they weren’t consulted prior to the bill being presented. After certain issues, such as an agreement that time contributed by volunteers does not count toward a monetary contribution, were addressed, Mandel is now fine with the current version of the bill. Up until this point, the province has not initiated caps in local elections. Some communities may have implemented their own.

One part of the bill will be tabled until December of 2011 simply because it would be too difficult to implement before this coming October’s election period. This calls for unused contributions to be held in trust and then if not used by the candidate for re-election, they would be distributed to charity or local governments. This is to insure that the money collected serves a purpose other than personal gain.

Sherwood Park Property Blog

Bulls VS. Bears in Stock Market Debate

Financial analysts are working overtime trying to predict which way the stock market is going next. Late January saw a plunge almost to 11,000. That was not good.  But this last Friday, the market closed at 11,975. That was good.  Very good.  It almost matched Toronto’s high of 12,000 briefly held in January of this year.

Now that the market is back in the high numbers, investors are considering their options.  Should they take their profits as they stand now, or hold on to see where the ride might take them?  The debate continues.

Those who believe it is a bear market think another crash is coming.  Jobless numbers are still high; stimulus programs are due to end and consumers will just stop spending. Some technical analysts see equity indexes indicating they have reached a holding pattern with little or no movement. That could be problematic.

On the other hand, we have the bulls that believe the stock market will keep going in the upward direction even if it does have to weather a few minor setbacks.  They believe that the low interest rates and the slowly recovering economy will boost the market along, even if it is at a snail’s pace.

No matter which side of the financial fence you are on, there is agreement that it has been difficult to make money in the market since the beginning of 2010. Those who have made a good selection of stocks at the right time have been mildly successful.

Gains have been small.  Toronto’s index saw a 1.9 percent increase since the 1st of January.  The Dow Jones had a 1.3 percent gain and the S&P 500 Index showed a 2.1 percent increase.  Not astronomical numbers, but at least they are going in the right direction, for now.

Sherwood Park Property Blog

Sherwood Park Resident Paul Boisvert Donates 600 Pints – Of Blood and Plasma

Have you donated blood? Once? Twice?  Well, Paul Boisvert or Sherwood Park has calmly taken the needle in the arm 600 times to donate that number of bags of blood and plasma to Canadian Blood Services.

After his record setting donation, given at an office near Edmonton’s University of Alberta Hospital, he was rewarded with a cake in celebration of his achievement. Boisvert wasn’t even aware that it was his 600th donation.  It was just another blood donation to him. Nor does he plan to quit.

His latest gift makes him 12th in the nation’s list of top blood donors.  The all time leader is a fellow Albertan who has, to date, donated 900 times.

Donating blood makes some people dizzy, but not so for Boisvert.  He has been donating since 1970.  Back then it was whole blood. He switched to donating plasma, which can be done once a week, in 1982.  Boisvert was encouraged to donate by his father, Roland.

The plasma collection process is a little different than that for whole blood. The donor’s blood is taken from the body and filtered through a machine that separates the blood cells and the plasma. The plasma is sent to a holding bag and the blood cells go back into the body to continue doing their work.

Plasma is very versatile. It has a high protein content and is routinely used to treat cancer patients, hemophiliacs, burn victims and in the operating room. Plasma has the ability to help the body fight against infections.
 

Sherwood Park Property Blog

New Homeowners Having to Pay Axiom Homes Contractors…Twice

It seems that some home owners are facing the prospect of paying twice for work contracted out by Axiom Homes to complete their custom made houses.  Various contractors, apparently not being paid by the contract management company, are going after the homeowners directly and filing liens against their property.  This, after these same homeowners have paid a $35,000 fee to Axiom to oversee the construction and subsequently forward payment to the contractors.

Axiom, founded by Danielle Addington in 2003 is not living up to its agreements. The company is also not responding to emails or phone calls from clients now having to deal with contractors seeking payment.  Clients are not receiving their refundable “float” fee back either.  This $15,000 fee was paid to cover unexpected expenses that may occur during construction of their homes.  Clients venturing to the Axiom office were allowed to view their files, but not photocopy any of the information.

As of November of 2008, 28 liens had been filed against properties built under management of the Axiom Homes Company.  In some cases, lien amounts have reached $33,000.  Homeowners, understandably frustrated, are trying to negotiate with equally frustrated contractors in hopes they can reach an agreement without having to pay twice for the same work.

When contacted, Lyle Bartfelt, the General Manger of Axiom Homes stated that the firm was restructuring and in the process of moving to offices in Calgary.  Further attempts at contact found the man unavailable.

It is possible that if Axiom Homes promised a service and did not deliver, they could be guilty of misrepresentation under the Unfair Practice code of Alberta’s Fair Trade Act. More information on the matter would be needed before an investigation is initiated. In the meantime, homeowners are hoping the various contractors, in the interest of fairness, drop the liens until an investigation can take place.

New Sherwood Park Gym Opening For Residents

Sherwood Park residents will soon have a new 24 hour gym. Snap Fitness at 201-101 Granada Blvd., has a targeted opening date of October 16th. The new owners are Sara and Wes Secrist.

The October opening was targeted to correspond with Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Members who run on the special pink treadmill will earn a 6 cent donation for every kilometre run from the facility’s equipment supplier. The donation will be matched by Snap Fitness.

Snap Fitness originated in Minnesota. The company has expanded to include gyms throughout Canada, India and Australia as well as throughout the United States. In Canada, the company has 40 locations, 8 of which are in Alberta.

Membership is on a month to month basis and that membership is good at any Snap Fitness facility. Members also have access to online personal websites to keep track of their progress and get meal planning advice. Supplements may also be ordered online.

Sherwood Park Property Blog

Several Canadian real estate agencies are seeing an upswing in home sales. This is leading many to claim that the hard-hitting and rapid real estate recession is essentially over. Home sales are rebounding so well, in fact, that some agencies are seeing home prices exceed even the highest prices of 2008.

The healthy sales prices seem to be due primarily to an increase in buyers without an equal increase in desirable residential listings. Well-placed and priced homes are selling faster than expected. It is not unusual for one listing to have several offers with at least one of those offers being higher than the asking price. Real estate agents in areas such as Hamilton and Burlington are reporting that solid properties under $250,000.00 to $300,000.00 are selling particularly well. Government incentive programs seem to be helping market recovery, especially with first-time home buyers.

The average home price nationally has been leveling out around $312, 585. This represents a 0.5 percent increase over last year. Home prices holding steady in a recession is a big enough feat. An increase of any magnitude is close to amazing. This has taken more than one housing analyst and economist by surprise.

Sherwood Park Property Blog

With relatively stable prices and a recovering economy, prices in the Sherwood Park area appear to be stable.  The Edmonton area is showing some pretty wild fluctuations, however Sherwood Park appears to be immune from them.  Compared with the market last year, Sherwood Park is looking very healthy.

During the month of July, there were 94 homes sold in the city of Sherwood Park.  The average value of the sale was $425,644.  Over the course of 2009, 674 homes have sold in the city.  The average price is down a little from the same time last year (last year at this time the average home value was $430,223) but compared with the beginning of the year it’s recovered quite nicely.  In January, the average sale price in the city was $376,545.

The amount of properties being bought and sold is up this year, with many people deciding the time is now right to get back into the market.  Low mortgage rates and a strong economic base are telling factors in the recovery of the market.

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