BORDEN — The Borden Care Home held a barbecue July 20, with admission by donation. Entertaining for an hour or so were Kendall Redhead singing and Jamie Brandrick on guitar. Raffle baskets were won by Kendall Redhead, Mandy Tracksell, Kevin, Kyler and Adele Domak and Donna W.
The Borden Friendship Club held their supper July 25, in the Borden Community Centre with 50-plus in attendance. The club had bought the burgers and hot dogs and supplied the cake and ice cream and members brought salads and side dishes to accompany the meat. Sandy Long was emcee and told a few jokes and gave the blessing. Happy birthday was sung to Gary Palmer, Laura Loeppky, Mel Kuntz, Ivan Youchezin and Glenn Skarra.
After the cake and ice cream was served, Ruben Rempel introduced Celtic Country who played for the evening – Perry Nicol on castanets and Celtic bodhran drum, Sean O’Conner playing button accordion, Bob Wardhaugh played keyboard and piano accordion, Ed Neufeld played his guitar and Archie Wainwright sang the vocals.
The Borden Co-op held their annual meeting in the Borden Community Centre the afternoon of July 24 with only a few members in attendance. On the board are Brett Larsen, president; Luke Walker, vice-president; Julia Orchard, secretary; and directors Glenn Sutherland, Jason Rempel, Melissa Braun and Diane Tracksell. Terms up were Glenn, Julia and Diane. Glenn and Julia remained on the board and Diane Tracksell stepped down, being replaced by Dustin Tracksell.
Manager Robbie Schmidt described projects over past years – preparing the cardlock site or relocating the installation of new dispensers and a premium gas tank, working on the capability of accepting credit cards at the cardlock so non-members can access fuel, and the purchase of the off-sale retail liquor store permit from the Roadside Inn and Tavern and Salon.
Early in 2024 they prepped the hardware store for the new wine, beer and spirits section, bought a new cooler, repainted the interior and added a scanner to their point-of-sale system. They added all the liquor items, hardware and oil items. Some of the employees 19-plus did online training to sell liquor and they extended their business hours at the farm supply. The grocery store saw an increase in sales reaching close to the one-million-dollar mark. They have had repairs of $14,000 to coolers and freezers. They got chosen to be one of the first small stores to transition to a new accounting system and also the grocery store is adapting to the new accounting.
Robbie thanked Marlene and her team of Danielle, Angela, Krysta, Esther, Emma, Sydney and Maddie for keeping the grocery store running smoothly, and to Shauna, Hayden, Howie and Natalie for their efforts. Robbie also thanked the board for the guidance, vision and insight they provide and a big thank you to all the members who support the local co-op and have for over 109 years.
Auditor appointed for the following year was MNP LLP and a big thank you was extended to Diane Tracksell for her years on the board.
Members buying in 2023 were 569 with 264 inactive. Sales at the grocery store were $991,812, farm supply $590,153 and petroleum $2,853,763 for total sales of $4,435,728. Balances at the end of the year were $291,109 in statutory reserve, $1,980,506 in general reserve, patronage allocation of $52,254 and retained savings of $258.497.
The co-op is doing further ground work at the cardlock location with an estimated cost of $1,200,000 of which $267,100 has been set up as construction in progress. The hope is to move tanks by October of 2024. This is all financed from operations.
Door prizes were won by Brenda Tumbach, Dorothy Foughy and Gerry Penner.
