May 8, 2024
ATIKOKAN
Volume 74, Number 27
$150
PROGRESS (Inc. 7¢ HST)
Atikokan-Quetico, Canoeing Capital of Canada
R #40012356
Tourist info centre won't open Bill for culvert could reach $3.5 million M. McKinnon this summer The Mercury Ave. culvert on the project last year and is on all the information I have now,
M. McKinnon The tourist information centre won't open this summer, Town CAO Jason Young confirmed last week. The operation has been handled the past few years through the Atikokan Economic Development Corp. Its staff supervised a tourism intern who in turn oversaw the operation of the bureau. But that position has been vacant since September, when Jordan Ekstrom was recruited by the province as a Northern Development officer. The departure of community economic advisor Katie Hannon about the same time, along with the apparent dissolution of the tourism advisory committee, meant no one looked into applying to the Canada Summer Jobs program to hire students for this year's operation. Tourism Atikokan, formed under the guidance of the AEDC, took over operation of the centre in 2019. The pandemic closed it in 2020, and since then the number of visitors has been gradually increasing. The total number was near pre-pandemic levels last year: 1,017 people stopped in over fifty days during 2023. That included seven days in June when volunteers staffed the centre. The building is owned by the Town, which has made several fruitless attempts to interest a business in operating there. It has never staffed the operation; prior to the AEDC taking on that job the Chamber of Commerce (now defunct) hired and supervised the staff. The Chamber concluded in 2017 that the cost of running the centre was too high relative to the return it generated. At this point, the Town is unsure what to do with the facility. “What is next? What is the long-term goal for that building?
RUC women collecting Cinderella dresses M. McKinnon The women of Riverview United Church are collecting dresses that would be suitable for prom use. The idea is to have a greener prom, and maybe a little more affordable, too. They are known as Cinderella dresses, and it's an idea that has been gaining in popularity all over North America. Giving dresses twenty, thirty, even forty years old a new life has been a hit See ‘Cinderella’, page 2
This is something Council needs to look at; I will encourage them to include it in the [upcoming] organizational review,” said the CAO.
replacement could cost as much as $3.5 million, one and a half million dollars more than the original tender, treasurer Brandy Coulson told Council on Monday. The Town spent $1.3 million
budgeting $2.2 million more this year. “That is based on the invoices and change orders I have seen to date, but there are things still under dispute,” she said. “Based
PETVALU WALK FOR DOG GUIDES Here are some of the fifteen people and seven dogs who turned out Saturday to raise money for the Lions Foundation of Canada Dog Guides program. All participating dogs received a Dog Walk bandana and a swag bag for participating. By Saturday afternoon, over $3,600 had been collected, and organizers were confident that the total would finally exceed $4,000. “Each year we do better than the year before,” said Lion Barbara Olson. “It was definitely a success having the walk on Main Street; we were much more visible on our endeavor to raise awareness and funds for the need of the Dog Guides program.”
Sapawe: A single-industry company town
Local history brings the stories of inhabitants and place back to life. Lois Fenton, Curator Museum of Atikokan Canadian history, particularly northern Ontario history, is predominately about resource extraction. Have you ever envisioned the small, isolated communities built around one industry? Living as we do, with access to Highway 11, Internet and television, the early forestry-based community of Sapawe of 1943 seems like another world. When J.A. Mathieu purchased the Evans Estate holdings, he began with a logging camp and a portable sawmill. Situated beside Lake Sapawe, the town eventually had a general store (owned by the company), a railway sectional house, two elementary schools, a chapel, coffee bar, and a bunk house for single men working at the mill. Homes in the town were owned by the mill. The community was dominated by the mill and accessible only by railway until 1954. The workforce and management came from well beyond the town and from outside the country. After the Second World War, J.A. Mathieu maintained his workforce by recruiting from Displaced Persons camps. In 1947 Canada began accepting displaced persons and political refugees from war-torn Europe. Almost 200,000 people were admitted. The post-war economic boom in Canada created a labour shortage. The community of Sapawe benefitted from the building boom and existed until the mill passed ownership to Domtar. Residential construction, which had been dormant during the Depression and through the war, suddenly boomed as returning
Remembering Sapawe opens at the Museum of Atikokan tomorrow at 2 pm. There will be special video presentations at 3 pm and 6 pm. veterans married and had families. Domtar entered into an operating agreement in 1967 and assumed management responsibilities. Sapawe gradually diminished, but not in the hearts and minds of the people who lived there. Childhood memories are of leisurely summer days spent swimming in the lake and the freedom and safety of a close-knit community. Those who recounted early days remember parties and dances, people who were neighbours and friends. Especially in our fast-paced modern world we need local history for context; people are influenced by their surroundings, and relationships with friends, neighbours and workmates can be just as important as those of blood or marriage. Local history can make a place feel like home. Sometimes there is no rhyme or reason, simply an inexplicable pull. By trying to understand the history of a local environment and culture we learn why things are the way they are today. This exhibit, Remembering Sapawe, is of a time gone by, a clear-eyed look at the community before 1970. There are few single-industry towns now, even rarer are those with a population who remember living in one and who have a record of their history.
I am projecting we will have to spend $2.2 million this year.” PDR Contracting won the job to replace the culvert in March, 2023 (almost two months before the culvert failed) for $2.31 million. That included replacing a section of sewer on Pine Crescent, work the Town estimated would cost about $350,000. That tendering process was about the only thing to go smoothly on the project. The failure of the culvert meant the replacement had to start on emergency basis. When what was left of the old culvert was removed, it became apparent the design that PDR bid on (a design prepared by Kresin Engineering for the Town) wasn't going to work. The new culvert had to be re-designed. At least a half dozen other complications have dogged the project since. What was supposed to be a two or three month job is now into its twelfth month with no end in sight. “There is a lot of finger pointing going on right now,” said public works director Tyler Dziarmaga. He went on to say the Town granted PDR Construction several extensions on the project, but none since October. “The tender contract includes provisions for a $3,000 a day [penalty] if the project is not completed on time. Will that provision apply?” asked councillor Jim Johnson. “That's under dispute,” said director Dziarmaga. “The scope of the project has changed significantly,” said CAO Jason Young. “We will get a fulsome report from the engineers once the project is complete. It could be up to one and a half million dollars extra, but we won't know until everything is complete.” Even with the extra cost, plus almost $8 million in other capital work slated to be completed this year, treasurer Coulson was able to present a budget that will keep the tax increase in the four percent range.
Refresh for AMHA board M. McKinnon Atikokan Minor Hockey wrapped up its most successful season in almost a decade with an annual meeting last week. It attracted nineteen members, and for the first time in memory, an election was required to fill the board of directors. “We've had a lot of growth and exciting things happening the past couple of seasons, and I think See ‘AMHA’, page 2