The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
In the same vein as the hit show from The Learning Channel (TLC), Junkyard Wars, 12 people on three different teams went over their garages and the town dump with a finely tuned nose in search of bounty for use in Snow Lake's inaugural junkyard contest. However, in this contest, which took place on August 16, people signed up in teams of four to build something that the community's Recreation Director came up with. "The goal was to construct a catapult that would throw a softball the furthest," said Rec. Director Stephanie Foy. "Contestants were allowed to obtain materials from the dump or their own property. They were also allowed to barter for pieces from other people's homes. But, there was the stipulation that teams were not allowed to purchase anything for their project. They all had a blast!" Foy explained that, in the same manner as the TV show, the project that the groups take on is always a surprise. "The project is unveiled and the teams have to work together and come up with a plan, then build it," she said. "For this past weekend's project, the teams had eight hours to come up with a plan and then build their catapult. Following this, we all met at 6:30 p.m. in the Sunset Bay Park where we tested each team's creation." Foy stated that the result was three catapults that resembled each other in name only. "That is what happens, different people see the project differently," she smiled. Teams then had three tries to throw the softball. The total length of all three throws determined the winning team. The winning team was The Dominators, a team made up of Kalen Stephens, Amber Tychinski and Chris Hill. Their prize: a cheque for $150. "The challenge is set-up in such a way that adults and children are able to participate," said Foy. "There were kids as young as ten right up to adults in their 50s. Everyone had such a good time that I have scheduled another contest for Saturday September 27, 2003. It was a lot of fun." On another matter, it appears that the Town of Snow Lake's quest to bring their water consumption down to an acceptable level, and thereby assuring government funding for a filtration component for their water treatment plant, is beginning to pay dividends. The town's water production for the first quarter of 2003 dropped 9.5 million gallons from the same period in 2002. Snow Lake's Chief Administrative Officer, Chuck Dunning says the obvious major drop in the first quarter of 2003 is the community wide replacement of bleeder valves with the water recycling aqua flo units. "That should account for most of it and fixing water breaks as soon as possible should also account for some of the decrease from mid 2002 onward," said Dunning. As luck would have it, even though the town's first quarter of 2003 was much lower, the second quarter's production was the same as in previous years. This has been attributed to a major water break on Lipsey Avenue, as well as a rash of others throughout late winter and spring.
