2010 - Year in review.

As years go, 2010 was a mixed one for the Caroline community with mostly positive developments all around. Caroline itself is the hub of an area with some 5000+ people from all walks of life, some raising young children and others in retirement. To service needs of everyone, multiple organizations have come into being ranging from a pre-kindergarten association to a seniors drop in center and everything in between.
Caroline School is at the very center of all this activity and has in later years adapted itself very well to the prevailing area culture which tends to be focussed on sports. To that end a group of area people, in cooperation with the school administration took on a major project this last year: The construction of a new sports field behind the school involving a football field with a track around it. This proved to be a bigger job than anticipated with drainage becoming a major problem during a wet summer, but the goal of hosting the first football game in September was met. And it was all accomplished with community donations of labor, materials and earth moving machine time with some help from Clearwater County trucks.
In the village itself the surface of several gravel covered streets were upgraded with a cold mix of gravel and tar in order to render potholes and dust a thing of the past. Again, Clearwater County came in to help with machinery and materials. Water meters were also installed in all village residences, a process that has been in the works for several years. So now a leaky toilet will severely hurt the back pocket of the unfortunate owner.
Another positive development in the village was the grand opening of a new medical clinic in September, open every Tuesday of the week and including chiropractic services. Caroline lost its previous medical clinic some 10 years ago, as the Innisfail based physicians at that time decided to focus on their local practice. The doctors in the present clinic come from Rocky Mountain House.
And construction of the Edna Topp Park on 52nd. Street was completed in 2010. This park project, which has been in the works for some 8 years, now has a playground, an outdoor ice rink/basketball court and a central picnic area with attractive landscaping included.
On the challenge side, Caroline currently suffers from a shortage of fire fighters for its volunteer based fire department. This is a North American phenomenon which leaves smaller communities very vulnerable to fire because of the long response time to fire emergencies from larger community based services. The fire hall in Caroline contains top quality modern fire fighting and vehicle extrication equipment and offers a great opportunity for would-be professional fire fighters to learn their trade at no cost to themselves.