Shamrock Drive-In theatre could become DIY project
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 12/04/2018 (2767 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
The owners of Killarney’s toppled drive-in theatre might rebuild the screen themselves.
“I think we’ll just do it,” said Joanne Struss, anxious to press play on a summer of movies after two years where they went dark under the starry night.
“It’s kind of like the house, you add to it as you go along,” she said about the Shamrock Drive-In.
Following the example they set in building their own house, Struss and her husband Darren plan to reconstruct their drive-in by hand.
They were hopeful a contractor, who approached them last year after their screen was battered by freak storms in 2015 and 2016, would be available, but they haven’t received an answer back.
Unless that changes or another contractor emerges, Joanne said they would build it themselves.
Her husband has experience, working on their home since 2011 when they moved into a camper on the lot just south of Killarney.
While they waited for their home, they lived inside that camper and the drive-in’s 1,200 sq. ft. concession stand.
“My husband is obviously a very handyman, as is my brother-in-law. My daughter’s boyfriend, this is the kind of stuff he does too,” Joanne said.
“It’s not that we’re lacking in people to do it.”
With construction on the family’s house nearly finished, Joanne is “hoping” the rebuild on the movie theatre can start this summer. She wouldn’t speculate how long that would take.
They’re always thinking of affordable construction ideas, since most costs will be covered by then. One proposal is stacking shipping containers on top of each other to act as their screen. She saw a similar set-up in Winnipeg, where a banner is draped over shipping containers to advertise the acrobatic Odysseo show along Route 90. She’s skeptical those containers could be properly anchored, however.
For now, “we’ll just rebuild as it was” with a billboard-like screen, Struss said. “The only thing I have to do is get an engineer to OK it so it can withstand the winds it goes against.”
The last screen was strapped onto seven poles fastened into the ground. Only one of those poles is still standing, she said.
Though it may take awhile, Struss hasn’t given up on re-opening Killarney’s drive-in.
“It’s too fun to let go,” she said.
The Stardust Drive-in, located in Morden, and Flin Flon’s Big Island Drive-In are the only operational drive-ins in the province.
Lucky Star Drive-In, south of Brandon, aired its final movie in 2003.
» ifroese@brandonsun.com
» Twitter: @ianfroese