"It looks like the year is a wash,” says Gord Ross, president of the Sukanen Ship Pioneer Village and Museum.
All three of the museum’s events scheduled from June to September will most likely be cancelled due to the coronavirus quarantine.
“We haven’t made a decision yet. I was thinking of an (executive) meeting in June. We kind of talked it over and we don’t think we’ll even be open.”
Museums are not allowed to open until stage four of the government health plan to reverse the lockdown over COVDI-19.
“We have no idea when stage four will be. It’s government regulations.”
Ross noted the museum, located on 40 acres, isn’t like other enclosed museums.
“People could get along with social distancing. They would just have to wait to see a building if there’s more than seven.
“If we have to follow the rules, we have to follow them.”
The contractor working on the $100,000 shop said there is a lot of traffic to the museum site south of Moose Jaw.
“It’s a hard call to make.”
The museum lost the annual antique collectibles show in March to the quarantine. Now the June 7 Spring Fling car show is done.
Family Day set for July and the Threshing Bee set for season’s end Sept. 12-13 are most likely also gone.
The oats fields will be left unseeded. The oats are threshed at the bee. Plans are to have manure put on the fields and ploughed in as fertilizer.
“We’re going to take a hit here, no doubt about it but we will have enough money to operate next year if we have a normal year.”
Ross and a band of volunteers haven’t let the grass grow under their feet as the quarantine halted public activity.
Volunteers have been working on projects from grass mowing to planting the garden to maintenance with other projects on the to-do board.
The Glover ranch house, moved to the north last year to allow building of the new workshop, needs some work to put it back into shape for viewing.
A new tarp needs installation on the tarp building.
“We’re hoping to put some drywall up on the railway station. It’s a good time to do that when there isn’t a lot of people around.”
Electrical and heating installation on the workshop was planned for later this year but is now postponed.
The museum was supposed to open on May 13 for the 13-week season.
Ron Walter can be reached at [email protected]
