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Tisdale, the fall of 2016
Tisdale
Friday, October 7, 2016
by:Timothy W. Shire
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Each year little by little our town is changing. the changes sometimes come quickly and sometimes they just sort of creep up on us and what is new, seems new even years later. This story is by no means comprehensive, or even the least bit thorough, it is just observations with my camera and the obvious recent changes of 2016. It is surprising how these changes come along and the past is lost in the blur of passing time.

I took these pictures as the storm was beginning its snowy conquest on Thursday, October 6, around four in the afternoon. The wind was slicing in from the north with ice pellets and some snow. All in all, it was pretty unpleasant weather, but in general, we have all learned by now that the weather it what it is and you can accept it, or be miserable.
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We begin this project looking west along the south side of the highway looking toward Melfort at the top of this page. A new service road is being constructed to service the business operations that appear to be taking shape from the storage site west. As you can see, the nasty weather had shut down road building on Thursday, but there was still work being done on three of the sites.

On the right is a new building that looks close to completion, it is located directly west of the huge beekeeper’s service centre (below). There is nothing to indicate what this business is going to be, but in the fullness of time, we will find that out.

Down on the corner of this new development area, is a concrete slab and a yard site for yet another business. Some speculation is that this might be the new site of SARCAN which has their current building up for sale on the north end of town.

The Beekeeper’s service business has just expanded their warehouse by about one third as they lengthen the building to the south on their property. (picture below)
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Since spring, there has been some machinery stored on one of the acreages in the new development west of the airport runway. Now a large building is under construction on this site, seen here in a long view and in close up.

This somewhat surprises me, as I thought the way the lots had been laid out, this would be an upscale residential area, but the first portion to be developed, looks like it is going to be a commercial/industrial site.

The Co-op’s new convenience store and gasoline outlet on the corner opposite
7/11 has put the pressure on other businesses in Tisdale. FastGas closed up and now the Tempo gas and convenience store attached to Robin’s Donuts has ended its operation.

Robin’s Donuts had indicated it was closing, but shut down for only a day this past Monday and is now humming right along as always, with a steady flow of customers throughout the day.
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Beeline Co-op’s agricultural entity has relocated in what had been the BeeKeeper’s service building. I had understood that with the destruction of the Mall, the Co-op was going to rebuild a new market place on the mall site and the agricultural and hardware portions of the business would be located there, but apparently that was just one of those plans that hasn’t taken shape. The mall is gone and Tisdale is stuck with the cramped crowded and uncompetitive building that it has occupied for decades.
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Ready to move homes are definitely something that works well in the Saskatchewan marketplace and Strapko Construction has a completed unit sitting opposite the airport awaiting someone looking for a nice affordable house.

On the East side of KalTire, the former location of the
Country-Side motel has been cleaned up. The motel was damaged in a fire and has been demolished (below) and as you can see, the house and property are now for sale.
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As mentioned earlier FastGas closed up and the site was demolished with the fuel tanks excavated and the site left empty. (Right) BowMar Sales is currently making use of the site to display vehicles and equipment. BowMar had a really nice face lift for its building and finished it off nicely with a new name by the street.

The building that houses
Tisdale Tiny Tornadoes Daycare Inc. has been upgraded and a two story addition created.

For decades the obscure business beside the bowling alley,
Curiosity Corner was a fixture in Tisdale and considered by some, a place to find treasures. Well it no longer operates and the building has been converted into (below) Keep Conditioning Rehab.
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Meanwhile, downtown has been undergoing some major facelifts of its own. The Coffee Shop building and the former location of the bus depot has really been renovated and opened in late September as Mr. Ribs.

This business has really toured Tisdale over the years. When we first came to town, it was a stand alone restaurant, between the United Church and NAPA, but was destroyed by fire. Then it was in what is now
Gus’ Greek Ribs on the north end of town, before doing business in the Mall. Now it is back. We haven’t had am opportunity to visit the new restaurant, but we were fairly regular customers when the business was located in the mall and look forward to having the variety here in Tisdale.

Eating out is all about having choices and Tisdale over the years has had that variety to chose from. Currently we have
Gus’ Greek Ribs, Mr. Ribs, The Great Wall, and Calista’s and I recommend all of them to you, good menus and excellent value at each location.

In addition, the
Beeline Co-op is open for lunches and the excellent surroundings of The Sweet Cup is also a great choice for lunch. Fast food is taken care of with A&W, Dairy Queen, Subway and Robin’s Donuts and there is the canteen in the RECPlex.

The
Great Wall Restaurant next door has had its front refurbished and continues to flourish.

As always there are mysteries. Between
The Great Wall and new clothing outlets on main street is the little store front that looked pretty shabby. In 1995 it was a pizza place, then Sonia’s Pizza, then a music store, but it has been closed up for the past year. Now the metal front of the building has been removed, revealing a classy brick storefront. Work is going on, refurbishing this building, both inside and out and in time, we will discover what business will occupy this location.

Across the street
Trombley’z Bakery, formerly Zoerb’s Bakery has ended its operations in its role as a deli and bakery. It is hard to know why the business did not continue to hold on after it ended its bread production, but they did not find their niche in the Tidale marketplace and will now concentrate on catering.

This story really only mentions some of the obvious changes in the Tisdale marketplace and as I mentioned at the beginning in no way is it a comprehensive run down of the recent changes in the businesses and services here in Tisdale.

Below is the newly renovated and renamed store the
Red Apple. Up until a month ago this was Tisdale’s “Bargain Shop” but it has undergone a major overhaul providing Tisdale with a viable retail outlet that has clothing, general merchandise and a fairly extensive food component. It is by no means a full alternative to the Co-op but it does provide some choices and some viable competition.
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