The Meridian Source looks back at events in May 2025.
City Furniture opens in North Battleford
After moving to Lloydminster in 2020 to join the family business as a City Furniture and Appliances owner, Dil Randhawa continues to grow the chain and is feeling more welcome than ever.
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City Furniture’s new North Battleford location celebrated its official grand opening on Saturday (April 26) with a ribbon-cutting.
“It started in Prince George in 1976. Since then, we’ve grown to 25 stores from West Kelowna to North Battleford,” said Randhawa, noting the Lloydminster location celebrated its five-year anniversary on April 5.
Saturday’s ribbon-cutting included several special guests and longtime supporters of Randhawa’s Lloydminster location.
“We’ve made lots of great connections in the area and were honoured to have Chief Cody Benson of Red Pheasant Cree Nation and Chief Donny Ironchild of Little Pine First Nation in attendance,” said Randhawa.
“The girls from Onion Lake Health Centre were also there. The Indigenous community and the surrounding community have supported us tremendously … we’ve had people drive to Lloydminster from Wilkie to buy a fridge from us. They could have gone to Saskatoon but they chose to deal with us.”
The North Battleford store, located at 2702 99 St., opened in September with the help of several local contractors and businesses.
“We bought the building last spring and had help from Sparkes Builders, Rosswell Homes and Kondro Electric,” said Randhawa. “Creative Concrete and Repair (CCR) did the polished concrete floor, which looks great.
“Those guys are all buddies of mine, but I try to keep as many local people working with us as possible. I love supporting locally as I rely on local support, too.”
Symposium to shed light on homelessness issues
There’s no easy solution, but members of Lloydminster’s Housing Working Group are hoping conversation can create change.
The Lloydminster Exhibition’s Nissan Hall will provide shelter for the Housing and Homelessness Symposium on May 7. The event will include frontline workers and organizations, advocates, policymakers and community members to discuss homelessness in Lloydminster.
The day will start at 9 a.m. with opening remarks and a prayer before guest speakers and two fireside panels, which will act as question-and-answer sessions.
Housing Working Group members Kagen Kneen, former executive director of the Lloydminster Men’s Shelter, Becky Schille, executive director of The Olive Tree, and Tyler Lorenz, executive director of Residents in Recovery, encouraged the public to attend and ask questions.
Maidstone Kin Club honours newest life member
Michelle Stepp was all smiles as she accepted her Life Member Award from the Maidstone Kin Club.
Stepp received her Life Member Award at a May 10 event honouring her service to the club.
“She’s put in a lot of time, and it’s a lot of time away from the family. She more than deserves this,” said Chris Zerr, Maidstone Kin Club president. “For Kin Canada, it represents a huge achievement of dedication to the club and all the things she’s done for Kin Canada.”
The award for Stepp, who was joined by friends and family at the Border Inn and Suites on May 10, was something she didn’t expect.
“It’s kind of just surreal,” she said. “It’s very humbling to receive my life membership. It’s not something a lot of people in Kin (Club) have received.”
Stepp is no stranger to receiving awards. A display of her awards was available for all to see, including her Queen Elizabeth Platinum Jubilee award, which she received in 2022.
Her time volunteering is a way for her to give back to her community.
“It means so much, just being able to go into the community and doing good things,” said Stepp. “A lot of the things I talked about in my speech, going and cleaning parks and going Christmas caroling with the seniors, I spent lots of time playing board games with the seniors. It’s just a way to give back.”
Gala garners $417K for LRHF
A night of Greek splendour evolved into a $417,893 fundraising event for the Lloydminster Region Health Foundation (LRHF).
The LRHF’s 23rd annual gala, held April 25 at the Lloyd Ex’s WLS Convention Centre, featured fun, food, family and fundraising.
“We’re extremely grateful for the overwhelming success of the event and the generosity of our community, volunteers, sponsors and everybody who steps up to make this event what it is,” said former LRHF CEO Stephanie Munro.
“The amount raised was overwhelming and it shows how health care is top-of-mind for so many people in the community.”
As always, funds raised go toward the foundation’s greatest-needs fund, which supported community seniors this year.
“The greatest needs fund allows us to act quickly and promptly when certain things arise in our commiunity,” said Munro.
“This year, we raised funds for a new ice machine, a blanket warmer and new air mattress beds for the Pioneer House and Pioneer Lodge.”
From new-born babies to 100-year-old retirees, Munro explained the LRHF does what it can to support all residents of the community.
“We are able to help members of the community thanks to the generous support of our donors who step up year after year to attend our gala,” she said.
“The event is a fundraising event, but it’s also an opportunity to say thank you to our donors who do so much for our community. It gives our donors a beautiful night out, an amazing meal, great entertainment and the ability to mingle and enjoy a sense of community.”
Local TV station signs off in Lloyd
A local pillar of the Lloydminster community has been taken off the air after 65 years in the business.
A May 13 news release announced CITL-TV and CKSA-TV were going off air.
“It was an agonizing decision, to be honest,” said Steve Jones, president of Stingray Radio, via email.
“It was not what we wanted to do, but we had exhausted all options. The TV stations had been losing money for years, and the losses kept mounting up with no end in sight. In fact, the future of small-market TV only looks more perilous. We are not in the business of closing things down. Or giving up. This was one of the hardest decisions I’ve been part of my in my career.”
Jones explained the process had been underway for weeks and many potential buyers had been spoken with before the decision was made.
“We also spent several months prior trying to find a buyer or company to take over the stations,” he said. “We spoke to national and regional broadcasters. We spoke to specialty and Indigenous broadcasters. We really wanted to make this work. But even at essentially free, no TV operator felt it was a viable business to inherit.”
CKSA-TV started offering television to the Lloydminster area back in 1960 after CKSA radio expanded. Colour programming was added in 1968 after the station spent a considerable amount of money to upgrade.
Eventually, the second station, CITL-TV, a CTV affiliate, was added. The Lloydminster TV station has been providing local news content and keeping people informed since its inception, with many popular faces gracing its set.
Today, in a landscape of media uncertainty, it is even more difficult to fathom losing such a pillar in the community.
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