Here’s something that’s very timely and topical for our examination of Timmins history the next couple of weeks.
Museum director-curator Karen Bachmann is going to talk about snow clearing. “After all,” she chuckles, “I think we’re got more than enough this year to talk about.”
The first mention is 1916, when Police Chief Albert Courtemanche was adamant in telling people to follow the snow removal bylaw.
“Which is ‘you are responsible for shoveling in from of your home/business, not only the sidewalk but the street, in order to keep things going,’” says Bachmann.
In 1924, Tisdale Township, which was Schumacher and South Porcupine, bought a tractor-snowplow. Bachmann’s research shows that it was used exclusively to keep the road between South End and Timmins open.
“Because we weren’t doing that before,” she recounts. “So it was very much a sled and horses and that kind of thing. So now we’re going to try to make it a little bit prettier and a little bit better for that.”
Next week: The first snow removal budget in Timmins, and a couple of facts that will make you say “Can you imagine?”