Lease secured to save UGG elevator at Kinuso

Retired Kinuso farmers Sloco McRee, right, and Zanny McRee, of Kinuso, are donating the old United Grain Growers elevator in Kinuso to the local museum society.

Chris Clegg
South Peace News

Efforts to save one of Kinuso’s landmarks has reached fruition after the M.D. of Big Lakes agreed to give $25,000 to the Kinosayo Museum Society at its Feb. 27 meeting. The money will be used to pay for a 25-year lease with CN to secure additional money to repair the roof at the old United Grain Growers elevator. Kinosayo curator Jennifer Churchill negotiated the lease with CN in February. “This has proven to be quite difficult as it is in CN policy to issue yearly leases,” reads Churchill’s letter to council. However, CN eventually agreed to offer a 25 year lease under several conditions at a price of $1,000 per year or $25,000. The catch is that the money must be paid in advance. The benefit to signing the lease is the museum can now access provincial grant money to pay 100 per cent of the costs of repairing the roof and other upgrades. “Paying for the lease at the time of signing the lease is something that CN is demanding,” says Churchill. “However, this is also protection for the museum. Usually once a lease with CN is signed, CN … may cancel the lease with a 90-day notice. Since the museum will be paying for the lease in entirety at the signing of the lease, CN will not be able to cancel the lease.” And, CN will not be able to increase the price of the lease. “If we act quickly, we will be able to put a roof on the elevator by this fall,” says Churchill. The M.D. council, which considered paying for half the cost of roof repairs earlier this year, saw the $25,000 lease fee as being less than roof repairs, estimated at up to $70,000. “I think it’s important for that elevator to remain there,” says Gilwood, Triangle Councillor Ken Matthews. Earlier, brothers Sloco and Zanny McRee promised to give the UGG elevator to the museum if the land could be leased. Sloco, 74, and Zanny, 72, purchased the elevator in 1974. They are now retired from grain farming and see the elevator as a liability because they pay power and taxes and get no revenue. In short, they have no use for it and it’s costing them money. UGG acquired Midland and Pacific Grain Company in 1954 including two elevators at Kinuso. One elevator, built in 1938, was dismantled in 1969. The current one was built in 1951. UGG closed the elevator in 1973 and put it up for sale. The McRee brothers were the success bidders. “We agreed in our sales contract not to operate the elevator as a commercial venture,” says Sloco in a story written by Barb Selyem for Country Grain Elevator Historical Society based in Montana. “That was OK, because we wanted it for our own farm storage. It has paid for itself several times and provided benefits we hadn’t thought about when we bought it.”

Copyright © 1999-2005 South Peace News. All Rights Reserved.
No part may be reproduced without written permission.

View our Privacy Statement.
Send website suggestions to the Webmaster