Arnie Shea died on Dec. 11 in the Sundre hospital at the age of 73, succumbing to multiple myeloma ñ the most common type of bone cancer ñ after a three-year battle. He is survived by his wife Sheila, son Blaine, daughter Cheryl, and his brother Gordon and his family.Living in an acreage west of Sundre, Arnie was elected to Mountain View County council for Div. 5 in 2004 but resigned during his first term, at odds with the county over its approach to flood protection funding for the Molmac subdivision, where Arnie's home was located. He retired there in 1989 after a career in the tire industry. He was Firestone Tire's district manager for Western Canada and later opened the first privately owned Fountain Tire store in Alberta.Arnie was a tough guy. There's no point in trying to soft-soap the man: he could be a lot of fun but he could also turn ornery very quickly if he felt wronged or otherwise took offence. It was his way and it estranged him from many formerly close friends in the Sundre area.As the editor who handled Arnie's letters to the Gazette, I had my share of run-ins with him. We yelled at each other over the phone on one occasion and more than once we fought by email. He didn't like it when I cut portions of his letters and I didn't like it when he accused me of being a pawn of county agents. We fought, but we also made up. The letters kept coming.Arnie published seven letters to the editor during the year following the October 2010 election, most of them within the first few months, and with that relatively small output he gave the impression of being a one-man opposition to the new council under then-reeve Paddy Munro.Paddy, on the day he announced he was stepping down as reeve due to a serious heart condition, alluded to Arnie as the letter-writing critic from west of Sundre who would say the sky was black if Paddy said it was blue. For Paddy, on that huge day politically, Arnie Shea's barbs came to mind.Arnie's post-election letters followed in the wake of Div. 6 candidate Ken Heck's dispatches that heaped withering scorn on council for its ìfocus on firingî that started with axing the CAO. While his concern for staff morale seemed genuine, Arnie's ìmoonshotsî did not always hit the mark, like his idea for a semi-public snitch-line forum for county staff. But other times his jabs hit home and when he was backed up by phone calls from readers he undoubtedly had an influence on council. His admonitions did not prevent further firings, however, and the ìmutual partingî of Diana Hawryluk prompted one of Arnie's angriest anti-Paddy attacks in June.ìThe latest ëpurge' within Mountain View County to part ways with the senior planner comes as no surprise and was no doubt spearheaded by our current reeve. He created the reason (bungled questionnaire) to force the issue ÖîThat's how Arnie starts a letter that goes on to speculate on whether it's ìtime for affidavitsî yet and tells Paddy, ìMr. Munro Ö I believe you have stopped the development process for at least three years, because it takes that long for new management (if they risk the challenge) to understand our county's uniqueness.îHe ended the letter on a note of empathy for county staff: ìAs always, my concerns are for the employees who will no doubt feel the stress to meet the deadlines the public will expect!îOn March 1, Arnie gave Paddy a thrashing in ìNew councillors get a good dose of reality.îìPaddy Munro, our new MVC reeve, faced reality when he commented (as reported in the Feb.15 Gazette) that he found the budget learning process quite steep and indicated that he has a lot to learn over the next year. During the year before the last election, Mr. Munro and Kevin Good presented altogether different views about the annual budgeting process and spending habits of the past council and administration Ö Hopefully, Mr. Munro and Good have realized that they gained the confidence of many voters with their distorted comments that no doubt helped get them elected!îThen he really lets Paddy have it:ìMunro, you have been wrong much more than you have been right and maybe it is time to apologize for the way you went about disrupting a rural municipal operation that was doing most everything right and only needs an understanding council to support them with what needs to be done to make this the best managed operation in Alberta.îIn January he went after Paddy for supposedly ruining the county's relationship with the provincial government.ìIf Munro continues to spit in the face of government benefits and governing guidelines, he and his outriders will no doubt destroy any progress made by the previous CAO, who was well respected in Edmonton and had the experience to guide council to cultivate a better relationship between all levels of government. In other words, he was more useful in other areas of expertise than Munro could ever understand!îHe winds up: ìWe have a very concerning problem emerging when the inevitable decrease in oil and gas revenue kicks in, our grant funding is neglected and the current attitude towards residential and commercial growth continues to threaten future tax revenue. I wish a savvy, responsible, logical group of individuals would organize to challenge Munro's behaviour, force his resignation as reeve, and redirect this county away from becoming a ëhave not' jurisdiction!îIn his last letter, from the Oct. 4 edition, Arnie limits his vitriol to one reference to ìour deranged councilî and instead weighs in on the Netook Crossing furor. ìAnti-development stance will hold county back,î a response to a letter by Lloyd Quantz, contains an interesting analysis of the Netook Crossing issue and a comment that could have come from one of the ìderangedî ones: ìI believe the latest commercial project (Netook) had legs if the council had not got so starry-eyed and thought a mega residential development was also feasible.îBut while he critiqued the previous council for its latitude with Netook, he supported the former planning director to the end, describing a multi-lot subdivision approved under her direction in Div. 5 as being ìbeyond a doubt the best example of sincere pride and experience.îHe ends, as always, with a warning to county residents. This time it's about council squelching development and ìpreserving the ruralî even against the wishes of the rural landowner.ìAs the word spreads that experienced, dedicated developers are not welcome, because land that would graze a half dozen horses is too valuable for new residents who are willing to pay for quality, our county will be left behind and our neighbours will reap the benefits.îArnie wrote me a cryptic note last spring that had me a little worried about his health. In the note he said the attached letter would probably be his last. That he was ready to vanish from the political scene and go fishing. When another letter arrived a couple of months later, full of fury at council's latest misdeeds, I was relieved to see that he was still around. ìI hear you're a fisherman,î he told me the first time we spoke, because I wore an olive-drab fishing hat that summer, and going fishing became a recurring theme for us. Now that he's gone I'd like to think of Arnie that way ñ as simply gone fishing.
