Tag Archives: Unity SK

Next week’s newspaper

News, info, photos, upcoming events, sales, job opportunities – all found in the Unity Wilkie Press-Herald paper coming out March 31, 2014. Monday’s paper includes stories on:

EMT shortages and the effect on nearby communities;
the Unity Miners as league champions – get the details of the final game and on the players and executive involved this year;
Unity Credit Union holding their AGM, reviewing 2013 and looking forward to 2014; and
the Senlac Cafe serving up gourmet meals.

The Top 10 lays out the benefits of being a blood donor, while the editorial on page 4 explores in greater depth what it is like to be a donor.

Events in the past week at Unity, SK, included the Lions’ Spring Fling, where Jim Sego acted as MC and the Meota Hobby Band performed for attendees.

Frozen ground delays Unity pool construction

Although progress is being made at the site of Unity’s new swimming pool, weather has also caused some delays. According to Unity’s director of culture, parks and recreation, Nicole Goldsworthy, it is unlikely the Unity Credit Union Aquatic Centre will be ready for June 1 as originally hoped.

In order to provide swimming lessons and recreational swimming as usual for community and area residents, the old pool will be used.

Goldsworthy said, “After a meeting on February 24, 2014 with Town Council and Paradise LeisureScapes, it was determined that the installation of the walls could not proceed until the frost is out of the ground and that will likely be in May. There is still six weeks of work left to install the walls and another two weeks to pour the swimming pool deck. At the earliest, the Town of Unity may be able to open the new pool mid-July if everything stays on schedule.”

The maintenance and equipment building is almost complete, while construction on the new change house will start “as soon as possible and will be completed over the summer.”

Although the work is a little behind schedule, enough has been done to date that ensures the Town of Unity will still receive the $250,000 through the Community Infrastructure Improvement Fund (CIIF).

Grain transportation impacts local businesses

How have the grain transportation issues affected you? Please comment!

A simple drive down area grid roads will give you a good indication of the impact of the shortage in allocation of rail cars for grain. Even when still covered with snow or blending into the surrounding snowy landscape, long raised ridges reveal the presence of grain storage bags in many fields.

With bins still full from last year’s record crop, if farmers can’t make deliveries to terminals, they have nowhere else to put the grain.

North West Terminal CEO Jason Skinner said it was in December the rail car allocation began to drop. Comparing December 2013 to February 2014 with December 2012 to February 2012, the number of rail cars available has been “significantly” less.

As has been noted in numerous media reports on the issue, compounding the problem is the fact that demand to ship grain is high as a result of the record crops last year.

Skinner said the situation will definitely affect the bottom line for NWT. Like other grain companies, they are incurring demurrage costs and contract delay penalties. He also noted once shipping opportunities are lost, “you don’t get those back.”

The inability to deliver and sell grain affects cash flow for farmers and, with seeding time near and input bills coming up, the terminal gets many calls asking about the opportunity to deliver grain.

Senior editor Mark Szakonyi, based in Washington, D.C., covers railroads, U.S. transportation and trade policy, sourcing and ocean shipping for JOC.com. He reported NC president and CEO Claude Mongeau as describing the 2013-14 winter as “brutal and unusual.”

Mongeau also gave Szakonyi the following information on rail car issues in Canada: with extended cold periods over the winter, there was little opportunity for CN to make up delays; speeds had to be reduced by about 9 per cent; air brake systems malfunction in extreme cold, requiring trains to be shortened anywhere between 10 and 15 per cent.

With the railroads running shorter, slower trains, other businesses also have been affected. For example, Sifto Salt in Unity, SK, reports they have also been having trouble getting rail cars for shipping their bulk product.

How have the grain transportation issues affected you? Please comment!