Bill Jones - Realtor® Airdrie & Calgary Area Homes and Condos

Wow! what a Kick off, the first day of the annual AIRDRIE Home and Garden Fair held at the Twin Arenas in Airdrie Alberta was a Rip Roaring success. Everything was kicked off by a Stampede style Chuck Wagon Breakfast in the company of Royalty. The Calgary Stampede Queen and 2 Princesses,were present at the Breakfast, along with City, Provincial and Federal government dignitaries.

These were the Best Flap Jacks this writer has experienced at one of these outdoor breakfasts and by the size of my belt you can tell I've been to more than a few. ALI-OOP was there in good form , he's the mascot from The Scoop Newspaper, along with Al and Lois Jones the Proprietors of The Scoop, you should really advertise with these folks if you can they are wonderful business people to deal with.

The Calgary Stampede Board sent folks out to run the Breakfast and throw lariats around youngsters, Oh and then they'd Brand them. Don't worry it was an ink stamp, just so the parents wouldn't complain ;)

After a great breakfast and visiting with numerous Business Friends, Past, Present and Future customers , I went inside and took a look inside the Twin Arena's at the large number of exhibitors booths. You might have thought the tight economic times may have dissuaded some if the business people to save their shekels and stay home. Not in Airdrie business small and large were out with some truly fascinating Booth displays and everyone I spoke with was very positive about 2009 and where Airdrie is headed as a City in Alberta. There were booths covering ever aspect of business including a Fresh Pies being sold to support the Lioness Christmas Hamper and of course our Century 21 booth presided over this morning by Bonnie Wegerich our Broker and President of the Calgary Real Estate Board, and did I mention FRESH PIES, there goes that belt size again.

I had the opportunity to man our booth I the afternoon, what a blast, met tons of great Airdrie folks and even got a chance to do some magic for the local kids. We still have another full day of FUN and FRIVOLITY at the Annual Airdrie Home and Garden Fair, why not come out and join the fun, we re all looking forward to seeing you there.

The Airdrie Hunting and Fishing Association was formed last February by Wes David and aims to get Airdrie’s youth and families involved in more outdoor sporting activities.

The main goal is to get kids and families involved. It’s not just about going out and hunting. It’s about all outdoor sports from fishing right down to gopher hunting.

The association met for the third time on April 21 and implemented a new program called Garbage for Gophers.

Airdrie has grown enough now and there are enough young people to get involved in the outdoors rather than Xbox and GameCube and stuff. It’s a good way to get them out. One common stereotype a hunting and fishing association gets is that it’s an old-boys club, usually dominated in numbers by men, but that’s something this association wants to avoid.

One hope is that the association will implement initiatives, like stocking the local ponds around Airdrie with fish.

There is a chance the association would affiliate with Alberta Fish and Game in an effort to get their name and voice heard by more people.

The last meeting held at the Local Bass Pro Store in the New Cross Iron Mills Mall, in Balzac was well attended on April 21, 2009.

It's Spring Time in the Rockies, well close to the Rockies, Airdrie's Spring brings our Annual Home and Garden Fair. This year as usual it is being held at our Twin Arenas Complex. There will be Fun and Entertainment for all, it runs from April 25th to April 26th, 2009. From 9am to 5pm on Saturday and 9am to 4pm on Sunday.

What a great deal to only $3.00 per person and Kids get in FREE, Come and Join us for the Stampede Style Breakfast at 8:00 am on Saturday, Hosted by The Scoop & Calgary Stampede Promotion Committee. Oh, and I'll be there look for me and

say Hi, I'll be wearing my Hat.

Parking is plentiful but with the large number of people parking gets full early, why not take the FREE Shuttle Bus from the south parking lot of Airdrie Superstore starting at 11am.

I look forward to meeting all my Present , Past and Future Clients again this year look for me at the Breakfast and also at the Century 21 booth on Saturday between 3pm ad 5pm. Boy am I excited!

Bill

Airdrie RCMP members are warning residents to trust their instincts and err on the side of caution in relation to a recent fraud scheme. On April 3, the RCMP was notified about a recent scam occurring in the community in which a senior was conned out of a significant amount of money. The senior received a call at her home from a male claiming to be the employee of a local financial institution. He made inquiries about which local bank he senior used, recent transactions and he suggested there may have been a computer error that compromised her account. He stated he would make some inquiries about the account and call her back. When he called her back, he said it was possible a teller had taken money from the account with the intention of replacing it. He said the account was now closed with a new dummy account in its place. The con artist advised the senior to go to the bank, withdraw the funds from the dummy account and act in a way the tellers would not be alerted to the operation. He then advised he would send a security guard to meet with the senior at a separate location to pick up the money so the senior could tell the man which teller had taken the money and tampered with the account. The senior was then instructed to go back to the bank on April 6 to re-open a new account when the situation would be rectified. She was advised not to say anything to anyone about this because it would jeopardize the investigation. RCMP suspect the male who posed as the security guard is likely the same individual who posed as the bank employee. He is described as between 30 and 40 years old, approximately 5'8" tall with a stocky build, dark hair and medium skin colour. He wore a navy cap, a navy jacket, glasses and was clean shaven. Unfortunately this type of scam is all too common and trusting individuals often fall prey to such predators, said Airdrie RCMP Cst. Francine Hennelly. We are reminding residents to be wary of individuals that make contact and request personal information. It is best to never give out any personal details over the phone or online. This incident remains under investigation. If anyone has any information on this occurrence, they are encouraged to contact Airdrie RCMP at 403-945-7200 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477) or visit: (www.crimestoppers.ab.ca)

An Airdrie high school student was lucky to avoid injury after he claims his Apple iPhone internally combusted and began smoking, hissing and expanded in his hand before he threw it to the ground.

The student said he  was texting on the phone when it suddenly got hot and began expanding, it started to smoke a bit and then combusted inside .

He said he threw the phone to the ground where it burnt the floor and melted a nearby electrical cord, resulting in the school being evacuated and the Airdrie fire department called in.

His mother, has filed a complaint with the Canadian Safety Board because she fears the product could end up hurting someone else.

Calls to the Apple media relations line seeking comment were not immediately returned.  A technician at Apple’s telephone help center said he was unable to comment, but noted that Cryderman’s case was extremely rare.

The iPhone in question was an older generation model and not a newer 3G version.   A representative who answered the phone at the Apple Store in Calgary’s Market Mall deferred a call for comment to Apple’s media line, but also noted that it was not common for iPhones to combust. During a telephone interview with MacKay, he explained the situation and asked what would likely cause an electrical device to act in a manner like Shayne Cryderman’s.

Apple said they’ll send a cheque and will replace his phone with whatever phone he chooses