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A lot can happen in a small town

There is always a danger in generalizing and this became apparent when reading the Grand Forks Gazette’s year in review, last issue.

There is always a danger in making rash generalizations and this became apparent to me when reading over the Grand Forks Gazette’s year in review, last issue.

There are some that might think that Grand Forks is a small town where nothing happens, but they would be wrong.

Over the year of 2012, there was the usual news, like rate increases and talk of infrastructure. The Grand Forks International baseball tournament took place, so did the Grand Forks and District Fall Fair, but there was also a visit from Premier Christy Clark in early-February.

Early-March is a time between winter and spring with the landscape still grey from winter and not quite ready for the green of spring but a major event took place in March 2012.

There were the fires set to both the Winnipeg and Grand Forks hotels, with the latter being torn down after. These weren’t just ordinary hotels but ones that had been around for a long time and not only made local news headlines but provincial news as well.

Mother Nature gave a number of showcases throughout the year. There was a lightning storm in late-June but a wind storm less than a month later garnered attention throughout the province as a lot of damage was done and a young life was lost.

A week later, a tragic tubing accident in the Cascade Falls area once again gained attention of the media and not just local.

A girl was found shot on Canning Road in late-September, something that isn’t a usual occurrence in big cities let alone Grand Forks.

Another incident that took place prior to Christmas was a robbery that happened at a motel in Greenwood.

The hotel employee was forcibly confined but was thankfully otherwise unharmed.

“Nothing ever happens in Grand Forks” or “There’s nothing to do in Grand Forks” are statements that are born of ignorance as there is plenty to do in Grand Forks and as witnessed over the past 365 days, there are a lot of events that happen in Grand Forks as well.

Assuming otherwise is just wrong.

– Karl Yu is editor of the Grand Forks Gazette



Karl Yu

About the Author: Karl Yu

After interning at Vancouver Metro free daily newspaper, I joined Black Press in 2010.
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