ESTEVAN, Sask. — Dennis Blackburn says he is “honoured” to have a section of road named after him in the RM of Estevan.
The RM held a dedication ceremony in late August to rename a section of Range Road 2093 to Dennis Blackburn Road. The route is located in division 3 – the area that Blackburn represented as a councillor from 2005-2020.
“I live on this road,” said Blackburn in an interview with SaskToday. “I’ve lived here all of my life. This was my dad’s farm, and I took it over after my dad was done with it.”
He said it was nice to be honoured, and he thanked current Reeve Jason LeBlanc, current Division 3 Coun. Kevin Daoust, and the RM's current councillors and administration for making it happen.
He recalled a few highlights from his time on the RM council. He ran for the first time in 2005 to get acreages built in the RM, after he was told the RM wasn't interested in the developments.
“It took me about two years to get council onside, for them to decide that it would be a good thing for taxation … because living out in the country is a great place to raise a family,” said Blackburn.
He said he was also an advocate for industrial subdivisions in the west and east sides of the city, which created a huge taxation benefit for the RM.
Blackburn was also on council when the RM joined several of its counterparts to purchase Creighton Lodge from the Sun Country Health Region, which didn’t want to operate the building any longer. Blackburn approached a neighbour, Leo Seipp, who said the RM had first right of refusal on the sale of the building, since the RM was the lodge's initial owner.
“I was very honoured to sign that cheque. It was a cheque for one dollar to take back the ownership, and thank God we did, because Creighton Lodge is a wonderful place,” said Blackburn.
At the time, Creighton Lodge was not at capacity. Now it is full and the wait list has hundreds of names.
Blackburn said he enjoyed his time as a councillor and representing the subdivision.
“I was very fortunate to have good neighbours and lots of good thoughts came from these people. Councillors were all good and it was very good. I sure enjoyed my years on council," he said.
He continues to pay attention to what is happening with the RM and its council, and he believes they're doing well. Still, he’d like to see Creighton Lodge expanded to accommodate some of the people on the wait list, and he still wants to have cabins constructed along Rafferty Dam, since Rafferty is a big, beautiful body of water.
