Looking Back — June 15, 2023

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 15/06/2023 (1185 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

SIXTY YEARS AGO

A bit of Brandon died this weekend as Brandon College severed a link with the past by closing down Clark Hall, for 57 years the ladies’ department of the college. The four-storey addition to the college main building was built in 1906 with the purpose of providing “a place to make possible a comprehensive and thorough education for girls under conditions favourable to the right development of character.”

The Soviet Union’s fifth cosmonaut circled the Earth, and unofficial Communist sources said a woman would follow him later.

FIFTY YEARS AGO

Winds estimated at 90 miles per hour roared through Cypress River, 50 miles southeast of Brandon, pulling trees from the ground by the roots and lifting a garage off the ground.

FORTY YEARS AGO

Omega Hydrocarbons Ltd. has won approval for its plan to build a $2.5-million natural gas recovery plant in the Waskada oil fields of southwestern Manitoba.

The Provincial Finance Board has approved a $1.2-million renovation and addition to Birtle Elementary School and a 375-square-metre addition to Forrest Elementary School.

THIRTY YEARS AGO

Kim Campbell and Prime Minister Brian Mulroney offered mutual and complimentary salutes today as MPs bade farewell to Mulroney and welcomed Campbell as his successor.

TWENTY YEARS AGO

The Brandon Hills are a little bit closer to being open for business. Provincial Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Jean Friesen has reviewed and approved a controversial bylaw that would allow small-scale businesses that require a country setting to operate in rural residential and recreational zones. The bylaw was created last year after a group of Brandon businesswomen wanted to build a retreat in the Brandon Hills.

TEN YEARS AGO

Brandon’s compost program is so popular that city staff can’t keep up, and signups for the program will be capped at 3,000. After a successful 2010 pilot project that saw 500 homes receive the green-lidded bins for kitchen and yard compostables, the city obtained provincial funding to expand the program to 6,000 homes. The city expected to ramp up to that number over a few years — but demand for the compost carts exploded this spring. With about 2,500 households already participating, the city says it will cap 2013 registrations for the program at 3,000.

In her final year at the helm of Brandon University, president Deborah Poff says she wants to see construction begin for mature student housing and a plan underway to renovate the Brodie Science Centre. The university announced this week that Poff will not be seeking a second term. “I basically came here thinking I’d do one term,” Poff said. “It’s not a sudden decision … I think if you give people five good years, the best you can give them in these kinds of jobs, they’re hard and they’re stressful, and I think I’ve done the best I could with Brandon and will do until the day that I finish my term.”