Two grand openings were celebrated in Radisson, July 7. Biggar MLA Randy Weekes cut the ribbon for the official opening of the Radisson recycling plant; Mayor Kyliuk and Daryl Amey held the ribbon. Then, at the official opening of the new swimming pool, Wanuskewin MP Maurice Vellacott cut the ribbon held by Randy Weekes and the mayor. Councillor Michelle Nelson was the emcee for a short program held during the noon barbeque. She introduced special guests MLA Weekes; MP Vellacott; Daren Couture of Agrium, Calgary; Jack Astill of Capitol Paper & Recycling of Edmonton, purchasers of the baled paper and cardboard; Mayor Walter Kyliuk; and Daryl Amey, chair of the Radisson Recycling & Waste Management Committee.
On behalf of the provincial Municipal Affairs minister, Weekes spoke about the three levels of government working together to build the new swimming pool. The federal and provincial governments each contributed $55,000 towards the $275,000 total cost of the pool and the rest of the money came from fundraising and the town. Weekes presented Mayor Kyliuk with a Saskatchewan flag.
MP Vellacott spoke on how Radisson and surrounding communities came together to build the pool at a cost-effective price and commended the mayor and council for their leadership. He also congratulated the mayor and council on the new recycling plant.
Agrium, who had donated buildings and equipment to the town for the recycling centre, also contributed $5,000 to help with the costs of moving and renovations. From the sale of one of the buildings and some of the equipment, the town raised another $7,500.
Mayor Kyliuk stated that this was a very special day for Radisson with the opening of the two facilities and talked about some of the background on Agrium's donation of the buildings, why the town purchased a baling machine from Outlook, how the inmates from the North Battleford Correctional Centre do all the sorting and baling at no charge and that the price the town receives for the baled products from Capitol Paper is much higher than from Lorass. Baled milk cartons will be sold to Unified Dairy. Radisson hopes that the surrounding towns and rural municipalities will begin to participate in the recycling program, particularly as there is no cost to them for doing so.
Kyliuk thanked town employees Sheldon Rothenburger and Chris Tyreman for all their effort in getting things ready for the day, Daryl and Agrium for their donations, Darren Beaudoin and Wendy at the town office, the provincial and federal governments for their funding and the swimming pool committee for their fundraising, as well as all those who work bingos every week.
Kyliuk spoke of the late Myrna Condon, his predecessor, whose vision it was to have a new pool and who was the one to get the ball rolling on fundraising. The pool is 30 feet by 60 feet and 10 feet deep at one end. It is larger than the old pool which closed in 2009. The pumping station is in the arena. Lifeguards for the summer are Leyna Spence of Radisson, Tyrell Sargent of Borden and Kristopher Berg of Saskatoon.
Daryl Amey, who has been working on a recycling program for Radisson for several years, told the crowd about the renovations still to be done on the storage building. He thanked everyone who is recycling and said he hopes that everyone will be doing it for the future. Amey thanked Mayor Kyliuk for seeing the vision of a recycling plant and, along with town council, acting on it to make it happen.
