The Sales Barn in Stratton will see volunteers do some work on the old pole and take out the old seating area and the kitchen, on Feb. 5.
Kim Jo Bliss said they also need someone to clean after the cattle sales or after an event is hosted.
“Right now we can’t host events until after COVID we’re hoping going forward that we might be able to do some events,” Bliss said. They will also need someone to work the canteen to cook lunches and make food available for staff and people selling cattle.
“The people that were there prior were wanting to retire,” Bliss said. “We thought we should advertise, thinking that maybe somebody else would be interested in doing that.”
In conjunction with building the new barn, Bliss said they need to renovate the old facility to sort cattle so there is a roof.
“We got to move out the old grandstands and the old kitchen,” Bliss explained. “They are planning to tear down, and then start putting things up. They will put penning in and use that for starting cattle when they’re dropped off.”
Bliss also said the Cattlemen’s Association will sell the commercial building they own in Rainy River, originally purchased many years ago.
“We had an in-transit,” Bliss said. “We could come to the border, and they would inspect our trailer, and they would put a seal on it. And we could travel through the US into Manitoba.”
When BSE hit, also known as Mad Cow Disease, they could not use the building anymore and it was costing them money to maintain it.
“We have been renting it out, but now we’ve decided that we think we should sell it because we don’t think that things will change,” Bliss said. “We’re not sure that that building will be what we need.”
Bliss said the money they get from the sale of the building will help them with the Sales Barn project too. Because even though they had some government funding for the project, Bliss said they also have to contribute some of their own dollars.
“We’re thinking that this might be a smart time to sell it,” Bliss said. “Someone else could perhaps use it, make better use of it than what we are and it’ll help us pay back some of our project money as well.”
