Pioneer Lodge fire displaces seniors
Prioritizing safety has led to residents not returning to Pioneer Lodge after a fire broke out on Sept. 9.
Lloydminster Fire Chief, Aaron Buckingham, says there are many factors involved when dealing with this type of situation.
“A fire such as this one is very complex to handle as there are many things to consider,” he explained. “You train and plan for incidents such as these, hoping to never have to put the plan to use.”
“Thankfully, this situation was contained quickly and efficiently.”
Dozens of emergency services personnel and staff on the scene successfully evacuated nearly 200 residents.
Many of those individuals were then picked up from a nearby location to spend time with family. Others were placed in hotels while the next steps to getting the Lodge back up and running are figured out.
According to Lloydminster Region Housing Group CEO, Stephanie Miller, the Lodge is working with partners to determine those, including when residents can come home.
“Our primary concern is the safety and well-being of Pioneer Lodge residents and employees, and we will only resume normal operations once we are confident it is safe to do so,” said Miller. “We will provide updates as soon as we have more concrete information.”
Strilchuk skiing for Canada in Columbia

Lloydminster’s Max Strilchuk is making waves in the world of international waterskiing.
The 16-year-old Grade 11 student from Holy Rosary High School was recently named to Team Canada’s U21 squad for the IWWF (International Waterski and Wakeboard Federation’s PanAm Championships in Bogotá, Columbia.
The competition, set for Oct. 7-13, consists of five categories including slalom, trick, jump, overall and team.
Strilchuk will be competing in slalom, trick and jump, but his favourite discipline is the jump.
With a personal best jump of 45.7m (150 feet), Strilchuk explained travelling that distance at high speeds is hard to beat.
“It’s pretty cool and it happens pretty quick, there’s nothing really like it,” he said on Tuesday night.
This will be Strilchuk’s second international competition after taking on the field at worlds in Calgary over the August-long weekend.
Premiers raise oil show profile
It was fist pumps and pump jacks at this year’s Heavy Oil Show at Lloyd Ex.
The industry event got off to an energizing start with Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith addressing the banquet and taking part in a lunch forum and media scrum.
The banquet took place the evening of Sept. 10 with the show running Sept. 11-12.
Andrew Oracheski, president of the Lloydminster Oilfield Technical Society that runs the bi-annual event, was stoked to have the two premiers on hand.
“Having them take the time out of their busy schedule is a testament to the show. They took the time last night to come to the banquet,” he said.
Lloydminster Mayor Gerald Aalbers also said it was “huge” to see the premiers take in the show.
“To have the two premiers here in our city together, speaking on one stage speaks to the value of heavy oil in our community in each of the respective provinces,” said Aalbers.
Retired after 50 years of feeding Lloyd

Until he retired a couple of weeks ago, it wasn’t hard to spot Keith Horton at work.
He was right there when you went through the doors at Safeway, manning the produce department.
For 50 years and two days, or 438,348 hours, Horton was seen doing just about everything in the store, most recently produce.
Marie Gerhardt is the head cashier at the 44 St. location and recently organized a celebration in honour of Horton’s milestone. The two have been co-workers since she started over 40 years ago.
“He’s like a big brother to me,” said an emotional Gerhardt. “Breaks will never be the same around here with you gone.”
At the behest of management, Horton told stories from his career, which spanned all three Safeway locations in Lloyd. He spoke of times when the lift was driven from the original store to the first mall location. Additionally, how being near a liquor establishment after work in the mall led to some late nights and early mornings.
Games’ success measured in chocolate milk
The Sask Summer Games were a tremendous success.
Those were the words of Wendy Plandowski to describe the 2024 Saskatchewan Summer Games, hosted here in Lloydminster.
Plandowski was one of the Games co-chairs and said they worked hard to host the best Games Sask had ever seen.
“We tried very hard to host the best Games that Saskatchewan had ever held, by some accounts I think we’ve reached our goal,” she said.
The presentation, made by Plandowski and co-chair Aaron Rawlake, was during the city’s Sept. 16 Governance and Priorities Committee meeting (GPC).
Some preliminary information was given about what impact the Games had on the city. Rawlake said Lakeland College, which was serving lunch and dinner, served over 18,000 meals. He says there was also 13,800 juice boxes and 9,800 cartons of chocolate milk served.
“It really puts into perspective what we did,” said Rawlake.
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