YORKTON – YDB Scoops has unveiled a history wall detailing the storied past of their iconic Yorkton building.
Nicole Roy, owner of YDB Scoops, had long envisioned honoring the historical significance of her shop’s location.
"We'd always intended that we wanted to do this but there was other costs or emergencies or expenditures or stuff that we needed to get done," said Roy in an interview with Â鶹´«Ã½AV.ca.
Recent remediation efforts, prompted by the discovery of abandoned petroleum tanks beneath the property, finally made the initiative a priority. With Shell facilitating the cleanup, concerns lingered over whether the building would remain structurally sound throughout the process.
"We weren't sure what was going to happen with the building—if it was going to survive removing the tanks—because we didn't know where the tanks were," said Roy.
The project’s history wall now includes details from Windows on Our History, a City of Yorkton initiative from the early 2000s. Roy received permission to reproduce content from the publication, updating it to reflect the latest developments surrounding the cleanup.
Roy sees the project as a tribute to Yorkton’s past and believes its historical value merits preservation.
"I updated to where we are now," said Roy, adding, "we just felt it was important to have that. It's very culturally significant to the town. It has a huge history within the city as one of the oldest buildings still existing so we felt that we should honour it."
The building, a petroleum station for decades, had its last connection to Shell, the company that stepped in to remove two underground tanks, one of which had been abandoned due to leakage.
"They removed the two tanks from underground. We originally thought they were directly out front of the building but they weren't. They were directly in front of the door off to the side of the building," said Roy.
"Those were removed in March. Everything went well. There were no major issues. It was basically a best-case scenario," added Roy.
Roy praised the team from Stantec and Shell for their careful work during the cleanup.
"I did talk to to some of the people from Stantec and Shell with regards to the tank removals," said Roy, adding, "they said that they put the greatest amount of effort into one of the smallest footprints due to the significance of the building to the city of Yorkton. They worked really, really hard to make sure that they didn't interfere with my business and that they were able to keep the building structurally sound and intact."
"They did a really, really good job of putting it all back together again."
Community members played a key role in bringing the project to life. Residents sent historical photographs, and one contributor—a grandchild of a former owner—provided an image of a painting depicting the building’s days as a Shell station.
"We've had a lot of community involvement in the creation of this," said Roy.
YDB Scoops remains open until the end of September.
