STOUGHTON - It was an afternoon and evening of celebrations for the RM of Tecumseh, as they held their grand opening of their newly-built office space and celebrated 115 years as an RM.
The celebration began with a ceremony at the new building on June 22 when the council, reeve and friends gathered for the ribbon cutting.
Reeve Zandra Slater welcomed those in attendance in front of the new structure that houses several offices, meeting rooms, storage space and headquarters for the emergency measures organization, if they are ever needed.
Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities (SARM) Division 1 director Bob Moulding was present, and he had a few words to say.
Moulding commented on the building, how it is a milestone for the RM and that it took the reeve, council and ratepayers a great deal to make this happen. He congratulated them on 115 years of being an RM. This took years of councils before them and will continue with the council and reeve they have now and into the future.
Cannington MLA Daryl Harrison also congratulated the council, reeve and ratepayers on such a big accomplishment, and thanked the people before them on the hard work they had done as well. Harrison felt it was very important that the RM building was also the emergency centre if a disaster should happen.
“Hopefully it will never be needed for this,” Harrison said. “But it is great that it is in place and will serve well if needed.”
Slater spoke on the history of the R.M. of Tecumseh with it forming in 1909. The RM, like many areas, struggled through the years of drought in the 1930s and again in the 1980s, and also faced high interest rates.
They have had infestations of grasshoppers and made it through a pandemic, and they will continue to move forward. She thanked the people before them who worked hard and went through difficult times more than most people will ever know.
The official ribbon cutting took place shortly after Slater's speech with the council at her side.
Festivities continued at the Stoughton Curling Rink. Valerie Creighton was the MC for the evening. Weir’s Catering served the meal. The guest speaker was retired radio talk show host John Gormley.
During his career, Gormley had 6,000 shows, and each show was roughly four hours long. That is 24,000 hours of talk radio. There were 25,000 guests, 60,000 callers and 36,000 topics.
Today Gormley is living in Saskatoon and is a lawyer but still does guest appearances.
Gormley spoke on how far Saskatchewan and the RM have come over the years, and that is something worth celebrating.
Settlers came to this province to buy quarter sections of land for $10, and the first grader that the RM purchased was for $150.
In the early 1900s, there were 97,000 people here and in 1941 Saskatchewan was the third-largest province behind Ontario and Quebec. Today there is over a million people and each year the province continues to grow, even if it is only small amounts.
He noted it is also known in this province that a person does not leave someone in the ditch in the winters, one stops and helps.
Gormley explained the growth of the province and how we are the largest producers of potash in the world.
He later said people need to focus on the right and not the wrong.
“It is not money or possessions that makes a person truly happy,” he said. “It is having a trusting and good relationship.”
He feels if we have this, we will live a long and happy life.
Slater thanked the special guests, council and those who attended for celebrating this important event with the RM of Tecumseh.
