Ya know, maybe it's a good thing that my high speed Internet is down at home...at least for another week, until my landlord gets home and I can start whining about it. This at least makes me get out of the house more. I go down to work to check my e-mail and surf, and when I don't feel like going back to the office, I go to where I'm at right now, the Athabasca Public Library.
It's a really nice day here today. It's kind of cloudy, but I like Atha-B when it's cloudy. See, Atha-B is at the bottom of a valley, giving the illusion that we're surrounded by hills. On a cloudy day like today, it's easy to imagine that the clouds are hiding mountains and that you're in some deep mountain village. Very cool.
Although, there are some things about the town that still strike me. As you all know, I love trains. And, even though the railway tracks were ripped out some 20 years ago, and there hasn't been passenger rail service here about 20 years before that, Atha-B still has a train station. I've been following the story of the train station at town council, and since I read all this on the air about a month ago as a news story, I feel safe blogging about it.
The town currently owns the train station, and a big question before the council has always been what to do with it. Of course they can't tear it down. It has great historical value...not to mention sentimental value within the community. The town has always been pressured to restore it, but that always leads to the question of what they put in the train station once it's restored.
A little more than a month ago, the town took tenders from businesses. The guideline was for the business to lease, restore, and move into the train station. But, out of the 2 tenders received, the town rejected both of them. One tender was to outright buy the train station - something that wasn't in the guidelines - and the other was to move the town's army surplus store into it - something the town council was dead-set against.
So, after all that, the town has decided to restore it after all. But, as one town councillor humbly pointed out, "That still doesn't solve the problem of a tennant."
I have a humble suggestion for a tennant.
How about a Tim Hortons?
Come on! Atha-B is a prime location, as you have Highway 2 slicing right through the middle of town. We're dead centre in the oil patch. And there's thousands of examples of fast food places moving into historical architecture without disrupting it!
That's my idea, anyway. And I would have put in a bid, if I had the half-a-mil that it costs to get a Timmys franchise.
Anyway, that's my dream, if it turns out that I'm living in this town for quite a few years. Put a Tim Hortons - or some kind of fast food place, really - in the old train station.
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