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Vegreville Seed Cleaning Plant Hosts Member Appreciation Open House
Vegreville Seed Cleaning Plant Hosts Member Appreciation Open House
Michelle Pinon - News Advertiser
A small, but enthusiastic crowd gathered at the Vegreville Seed Cleaning Plant on July 11 for a member appreciation event.
The plant is celebrating its 71st year of operation and long-time board member Gordon Tuck was formally recognized during the open house for his commitment and contributions to the organization having served 40 years as a director. President Bernie Klammer provided some information on Tuck as well as offered an historical overview of the seed plant.
“On Dec. 6, 1983 at the Annual General Meeting Gordon was voted onto board and participated in many of the seed processors’ conventions. As many of you can attest, Gordon always has a good knowledge base to add to the discussion around the board table.
He was not only involved in seed plant board, but involved with church organizations and has been involved with provincial grain organizations and has very diverse agricultural involvement over the years; and it’s been a privilege to have him working with us. There’s not too many board members that have reached 40 years of service.”
Klammer, along with Manager Jennifer Slasynski, presented Tuck with a special jacket to commemorate his 40 years of service. Tuck warned them that he might have to say a few words which resulted in laughter from attendees.
“It’s been quite a journey I’ve taken with the seed plant.” Tuck recalled touring the area canvassing fellow producers convince them of the value of building a new seed plant. He admitted, “It was a lot of hard work to get things done.”
Klammer said, “Going back to the actual development of this seed plant, it was really challenging to get this seed plant off the ground. There was initially, the municipal, regional and provincial governments who wanted to have one big regional seed plant in the localized area that all farmers would be able to go to on a regional basis. When you think about that it was very fortunate that that didn’t go through, because of the practicality back then, the mid-seventies, and it wouldn’t have been big enough for the number of farmers and the demand on that facility.”
The other challenge was funding. Klammer pointed out that, “From initial plans to when the plant was built inflation in the early eighties drove the initial cost of the plant up substantially, from $643,000 to $1,060,000. Quite a chunk of change and quite a differential.
The directors and some of the individuals who believed in building the seed plant campaigned farmers to have $1 acre for full paid-up membership. So, there’s still some individuals who have liability that we as a plant are paying them out over the years as they’ve retired or passed away. That was one way producers came up with $214,000 if I remember right to contributed to the building of this plant.”
There was even a plebiscite that took place related to the ability for the county to contribute funds to the building of this plant. After many failed attempts to have the county come on side with their plans a plebiscite was held on March 12, 1984. After the votes were tailed, 1,058 votes in favour and 869 votes against.
“So, it was a labour of love for the directors involved at that time.” Arthur Ziegler was inducted as a director in 1968 and served as president from 1974 to 1987. He compiled a binder of information with the complete timeline of events and all that happened from 1974 to 1987.
Back in 1981, Ziegler stated that, “six or eight farmers left for Edmonton to meet with Minister of Agriculture Marvin Moore to advise him that the County of Minburn would not agree to give us their portion of the cost of the new seed plant. He promised that if we had our portion of the money in place he would come to Vegreville to discuss the issue with county councillors.
On June 17, 1982, the board applied for a $200,000 loan and they looked at 10 potential sites on July 29, 1982. They made a deal with Tommy Rawluk to purchase two acres of land at $1,000 per acre. On Sept. 8, 1982 they signed a contract with Dorcal Industries of Calgary to build a new plant.
It wasn’t until March 30, 1984 that Ziegler signed the contract between the County of Minburn and the Vegreville Seed Cleaning Association. On Dec. 14, 1984 the grand opening of the plant was held.
Klammer said that when they look back as producers, “we are very fortunate that we had those devoted directors that I mentioned earlier to carry this through and bring this plant to where it is today.”
He also pointed out that, “The County in recent years, and now, has been very accommodating and we really appreciate the relationship the County provides for the seed plant. Over the years they have contributed grants; I believe twice to do the upgrades and purchase the colour sorter. We’ve had the privilege of having a loan secured through the County at a reasonable rate. So, the money is kept local for the development of projects.”
