Edmonton Journal from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada • 21

Postcards from the Hedge Nick Lees B2 to i edmontonjoumsi.conincvi EDITOR: THERESE KEHLER, 780-429-5399; cltytheJournal.canwest.com EDMONTON JOURNAL FRIDAY, JULY 10, 2009 it i 1 pa i 1 1 or I y'y CITY CENTRE AIRPORT NAIT plan to use land decades away "There has been no indication from this department or this minister that if the airport was to close tomorrow, we'd start planning NAITs expansion me day after. That's not happening. The city making a decision to close does not do anything to change out planning process." Councillors voted Wednesday to shut the City Centre Airport in stages, starting with runway 16-34, which lies just west of NATT's main campus. As part of the decision, they ordered negotiations begin immediately with the institute about occupying the freed space. But Shaw said his school's first priority is to build a new centre for applied technologies on land it already owns on main campus.

That proposed facility slated to house programs in business, health sciences and engineering technology will take care of an immediate space crunch caused by heavy student demand. Long term, however, the school needs to consolidate its operations, he said. The institute is currently spread out across 12 facilities. 'If we can shrink down to one, then you are economizing." A few years ago, NATT unveiled plans for a massive $517-million Ralph Klein Campus on the city's southern edge that was touted to be the future home of many of the school's heavy trades programs. See AIRPORT B6 KEITH GEREIN Journal Staff Writer EDMONTON City council's vote to close the City Centre Airport has suddenly opened up a world of expansion possibilities school may have no use for the land for 20 to 50 years.

"That's the time frame you need to be thinking about," NATT president Sam Shaw said Thursday. "When you start looking at MIT or Cal Tech or Georgia Tech, their visions are 20 to 40 to 50 years and they have the land acquired to allow them to grow into the future. "With the decision by city council, that allows us the opportunity to grow over the next 50 or whatever number of years." While the soon-to-be available land may be raising excitement, Advanced Education and Technology Minister Doug Horner said his department has no plans to construct any buildings. He said the provincial government hands out project funding based on where the greatest needs and demands are, and right now that doesn't include a huge campus expansion for NATT. As such, he suggested city councillors were mistaken if their vote to shut down the airport was based, in part, onabeMNATT would soon be ready to move onto the site.

"Using that as an excuse or reason to close the airport, I'd have to wonder about that," Horner said. in i mm WALTER TYCHN0W1CZ, THE JOURNAL New generation speaks its mind Old guards grip on airport debate slips as bloggers blast away Oil City Derby Girls, from left, Bonnie Battersby (a.k.a. Bamm Bamm), Corvine Thain (a.k.a. Wytchy) and Pam Rubner (a.k.a. Topp Gunns) are ready to give the Sourdough Raft Race a shot.

Derby girls 'don know if the sucker will float' 7 iwmuvjmRi :) 7 vv years on a farm two hours southeast of the city. The boat rolled into town late Thursday afternoon. "We're not really sure it's seaworthy," says Thain, a training co-ordi-nator by day who becomes the roller derby queen Wytchy by night "I don't know if the sucker will float all the way." The Oil City girls will have to hustle to get the ship into shape this weekend. In addition to weekly practices, there are two weekend roller derby games Saturday night at Sherwood ParkHockey Arena. And while there may not be time to transform the Rising Star into a roller skate as planned, Thain and crew will at least try to make sure it floats.

"It's really going to be a tight squeeze to get it built and seaworthy." By this weekend, Sourdough Raft Race Association president Walt Ba-dowsky will have seen it all. Badowsky watched the inaugural festival in 1960. In 1963, organizers were offered $1,000 to turn the event into an attraction for the newly minted Klondike Days attraction. The Sourdough Raft Race transformed into its own festival in 2005 when Klondike Days became Capital Ex. The tradition began with an informal race between Edmonton Power BRENT WITTMEIER Journal Staff Writer EDMONTON The Oil City Derby Girls are trading in their roller skates for water wings.

Edmonton's oldest roller derby club is a last-minute entry in this weekend's 50th anniversary Sourdough River Festival. This year's regatta features the usual 8 a.m. Sunday morning pancake breakfast and noon raft race from Terwillegar Park to just past Louise McKinneyPark. Corvine Thain, vice-president of the Oil City Derby Girls, insists her crew won't be wearing their roller gear for the event. "Our bearings might seize." Thain isn't kidding.

The ladies have yet to test their raft, an eight-metre-long, two-metre-tall paddlewheel constructed from old bed frames and tandem bicycles. It could be sink or swim. The club acquired the raft via trade last year with campus radio station CJSR. In exchange for a pair of roller derby tickets, the non-profit organization landed the rights to the coveted seacraft formerly known as the Rising Star. The only problem was the Rising Star has been in dry dock for three S3 3 GO face change, sooner or later.

They can relocate to one of the other airports in the region or stay until the second runway is bulldozed. The airport might remain operational for 25 years or more. Or it could be shuttered in 10. Civic politics entered a state of flux this week, too. A new reality emerged along with a new establishment.

Students, young professionals and the like opened council's eyes to their reality and, no doubt, helped shape the final vote. Councillors were blitzed with e-mails in the past two weeks. According to Coun. Don Iveson, the e-mails were running 10-1 in favour of dosing the airport. Fledgling political activists came from everywhere and nowhere that is, if you think the Internet isn't a real place.

Calls to close the airport appeared on blogs and Facebook, Twitter and Connect to Edmonton. See McKEEN I B6 The industry of my employment, journalism, is in flux. Internet innovations appear and mutate so quickly they outpace well-worn mental reflexes. As an old-dog newspaperman, Fm skittish. Will I still be relevant next year? Next month? Life is in constant flux.

The next moment brings a new reality. A new reality brings people who flourish in it. The word "certainty" was spoken often this past week at City Hall, as council debated the future of the City Centre Airport. Aviation businesses demanded the airport remain open so they could enjoy certainty. Cal Nichols, best known for his role with the Edmonton Oilers, demanded the airport stay open for the certainty of the local economy, as well as private pilots who fly out of the airport.

Coun. Linda Sloan demanded certainty for medevac flights into the airport Certainty they wanted. Flux they got. The airport will lose one of its runways soon. The expiry date for the second runway will be determined in the coming months.

Is that even certain? Perhaps not. We might see a petition drive to force an airport plebiscite onto the civic election ballot in 2010. My bet is it wouldn't succeed. But again, nothing is certain. For now, the aviation businesses "fey lift mi i 1 0 1 jj, i fcmO jA" i ii i ii.

i. hi ii employees from Devon to Edmonton. "It was a weekend party," said Badowsky, thenayoung electrician with the city. "They chopped trees down along the river and built themselves rafts." The small party quickly evolved into an event for city workers. With Klondike Days aboard, it became open to the public.

Badowsky oversaw the formal event until the early 1970s and has remained closely involved for the past four decades. He became president once again two years ago. Over the years, the initial idea of racing gave way to novelty crafts, water fights and old-fashioned mischief. Badowsky fondly remembers the early 1970s, when then mayor Ivor Dent would challenge northern Alberta's mayors to a dinghy race. "It's changed complexion considerably," Badowsky said.

"It's just an opportunity for people to get out on the river and enjoy the river valley and the scenery." New this year is the Sourdough Kids Zone Mini Carnival at noon on Saturday, featuring a children's mini raft construction event, facepainting, and a barbecue. bwittmeiertheioumal.canwest.com AmMAmA! Hi i a -n. tit I hlM I I III mi Ml III III m-W -N "M- '4 Im'l in i 'St wdc.com iff in.