Winter roads taking loads

North Spirit Lake is giving new meaning to the phrase ‘school is cool.’
Thanks to a recent cold spell, the community’s winter road is fully-functional and able to handle tractor trailers and semi-trucks with ease. In the past week, the community has already received a half-tanker of fuel.
But more importantly, said Deputy Chief Cameron Rae, building materials for the community’s new school arrived on a semi-truck as well.
“The trailer had been parked in Red Lake … because it didn’t make it up last season (year) on the winter road,” Rae said. “When the winter road season ended last year, it did so abruptly and the school parts never made it.”
Getting the new school building constructed is a huge priority for the community, Rae said.
“The rest of the pieces should be coming soon,” he said. “We want to get everything up here as soon as we can because you never know how long the season will be.”
Rae is hopeful the new school will be ready for use in September.
It will replace the current Victoria Linklater School.
“The old school needs to be replaced,” Rae said in an interview Jan. 28. “The furnace is malfunctioning. There was no school today because there was no heat in the school.”
Rae said the community members are excited to have the winter road ready for use.
“Everyone is happy to be able to get out of the community,” he said, adding he’s already made the five-hour drive to Red Lake. “The road is in good condition. In some places it is rough and bumpy but you expect that.”
In Bearskin Lake, Chief Rodney McKay said the community’s winter road has been open to light traffic for “quite some time,” but the road still isn’t approved for heavy loads.
And the community isn’t taking any chances with getting any materials it needs for the year ahead.
“We’re hoping to have everything delivered by the end of February,” McKay said. “We’re getting everything organized now so the trucks can all come (in a convoy). You can never predict the length of the winter road season so we want everything as soon as possible.”
He said the community isn’t in dire need of fuel or other supplies at the current time.
“We’re fine for fuel,” he said. “We have extra storage. We’re fine for a few more months at least.”