Duane Hicks
In the spirit of “Canada 150,” town council gave its blessing Monday night to a new coffee table book dedicated to the work of pioneer photographer William Hampden Tener.
Council agreed to a $5,000 expenditure from the museum reserve fund to get 300 letter-sized books published, with the intention that the funding be recovered by sales.
This recommendation came to council through the Community Services executive committee after Fort Frances Museum curator Sherry George proposed the money–comprised of donations by patrons and funds gifted to the museum by the late Dino D’Agostini–be used to help make the Tener book get into print.
“I am totally surprised, encouraged, and thankful to know that there appears to be generous town support for the ‘Tener 150’ project,” said local historian and author Merv Ahrens, who’s been working diligently on the book with the help of “Photoshop guru” Nell Laur and researcher Maxine Hayes.
He added that thanks to research assistance of town clerk Lisa Slomke, he learned one of Tener’s first customers was the McIrvine council–the predecessor to Fort Frances town council.
In 1898, they had purchased $4 of his photos–as recorded in the minutes “for the purpose of advertising the advantages of our section of country for settlement,” noted Ahrens.
In other words, these were photos that would promote town business opportunities and attract settlers to the Rainy River Valley, he added.
As previously reported, the Tener book will be a collection of some of the photos of pioneer life in the Rainy River Valley, which recently were acquired from the Ontario Archives.
“The drafting of the project is coming along nicely,” said Ahrens, adding book copies likely will be available sometime this fall or perhaps earlier.
In related news, council agreed to the recommendation of the Community Services executive committee to endorse the removal of the tree behind the museum to accommodate an additional parking space that will be displaced by the Rainy Lake Square development.
In a report from Community Services manager Jason Kabel, he noted the museum currently has one parking space located at the back of the Rainy Lake Square property for the museum curator to use.
There also are two spaces behind the museum building–one handicap space and one loading dock space.
With the development of the Rainy Lake Square starting this summer, the museum staff parking space no longer will be available, noted Kabel.
The preferred option is to remove the small birch tree at the back of the museum to make provision for another parking space, he added.
Another option for a parking space would be the town lot off Church Street, but that would be much further away than the first one, Kabel reasoned.
As well, council authorized the museum’s application to the Northern Ontario Internship Program for a one-year intern starting this fall that will be funded 90 percent up to a maximum of $34,944.
The cost to the museum will be roughly $8,300.
