Looking Back — Feb. 28, 2024

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/02/2024 (765 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

SIXTY YEARS AGO

Former alderman and Earl Oxford principal G.R. Rowe was named chairman of the Brandon Industrial Commission at the inaugural and organizational meeting of the commission.

FIFTY YEARS AGO

Hundreds of rural students throughout western Manitoba were billeted in the homes of friends and relatives last night as a fierce storm kept many school buses off the roads. Brandon received four inches of snow, but the southwestern corner of the province received up to eight inches.

FORTY YEARS AGO

Virden’s IGA store, owned by Grant Galbraith for 18 years, closed its doors for the last time this weekend at its old site on Third Avenue. But Grant’s son Bruce decided to carry on the family name and tradition and opened a new IGA this morning in the city’s first shopping mall, two blocks away. The IGA store is the first to open in the four-store mall. A Saan department store and two smaller stores will also occupy the mall.

City council has granted the three-year-old Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum a long-term lease on its hangar at the Brandon Airport.

THIRTY YEARS AGO

Local consumers will get their say on Sunday shopping, but they’ll have to wait until the next civic election. City council voted 6-2 to accept an offer from the Brandon Chamber of Commerce to pay for a city-wide vote on condition it is held in October 1995.

TWENTY YEARS AGO

A handful of CFB Shilo soldiers headed for the Rocky Mountains yesterday, and they’ll be the second group to do so this winter. Approximately 11 soldiers from the 1st Regiment Royal Canadian Horse Artillery B Battery left the base in a Rogers Pass-bound bus, to begin a six-week deployment. They will work in conjunction with Parks Canada, with the joint mission to control avalanches along a 35-kilometre stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway.

Two more Westman doctors are returning home to resume practice. Dr. Bob Abell will join the staff at Gallery Medical in Brandon on March 9, and his wife, Dr. Mattie Abell, will resume private practice from their Wawanesa home. Earlier this week, Dr. Nick Butler confirmed he will be moving from South Africa to resume practice at the Brandon Clinic. The Abells and their son, Dr. Nick Abell, closed up their Wawanesa practice last October following a dispute with the Assiniboine Regional Health Authority.

TEN YEARS AGO

Police say they are making some strides in identifying the body that was found late Tuesday at Queen Elizabeth Park. Despite the corpse’s advanced state of decomposition, they say that the person was male, and believed to be about middle-aged. Clothes were also found, including what appeared to be jeans and running shoes. As police continue their investigation with the Office of the Medical Examiner, they are also bringing in people from the Brandon University’s anthropology department to help work on the scene.

Hiring the most qualified and experienced teachers has become a trend for the Brandon School Division, despite the effect these salaries have on the budget, according to Supt. Donna Michaels. Although the division works within the parameters of its budget when hiring, Michaels said they’ve never had to deny an opening to an experienced teacher due to budgetary constraints.