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.
All Helen Strom wants is some recognition for her grandparents. The former Channing resident is asking Flin Flon City Council to name a street in the subdivision after Alexandre and Mary Desjardins, both pioneers of what was once known as Mile 83. "I believe the Desjardins family are legitimately deserving of this remembrance and recognition since they were the first pioneer family to settle in Mile 83," wrote Strom in a letter to council, "and then stay on as residents of the Channing community until 1949." Strom requested that the unnamed gravel road along Schist Lake, between Freedman St. and Flin Flon Highway, be christened "Desjardins Lane" and be designated as such with a street sign. The road is within a few yards of the Desjardins' first home, an old sawmill building on the the current site of the Channing beach and playground. "Channing street names were all designated for early residents of the area," wrote Strom. "However, when the streets were named in the late 1940s, one of these pioneer families was inadvertently missed." Alexandre and Mary Desjardins arrived in Channing in 1927 and soon built and managed a small hotel and restaurant called "Channing House." "In the early days, the train always stopped at the Channing Station," wrote Strom. "Both crew and passengers would disembark and walk the short distance to the Desjardins restaurant." Since 1927, five generations of the Desjardins family have called Channing home. City council reviewed Strom's request Tuesday evening, referring it to the Engineering Services Committee for further review.
