The Bergen elevator opened for business in 1965, it was a Federal Grain elevator at that time. In the fall of 1965 there had been a lot of tough grain and the previous agent ended up with only nine people who patronize their service because he would not take the tough or damp grain. Rene Monchalin came to manage the elevator in January, 1966. The first year Rene was there he managed to get quite a few new customers.
Henry Johnson, Harry Rose, and Percy Hudson were some of the customer of the elevator in December, 1966 at the first Christmas party which was held in the office. This annual party around December 23 was held every year until 1972. At that point the parties were just getting too big; the office was full and so was the basement.
In 1970 the Bergen elevator’s west annex was being built. It was getting late in the fall and quite cool. A chap from Lorette with the people in construction department would not wear a hard hat. One day they were hoisting rolls of paper to the upper part of the annex when one slipped and fell hitting this chap on the head. It knocked him out and the people who witnessed it was carried into the office where he was revived.
In the fall of 1971 the new annex caught fire. Bill Chimuk noticed the fire about 3 a.m. and called Rene. He in turn called the Reeve, Evered Lawrence. The RM of Rosser did not have any fire equipment at that time. A call was put into the Winnipeg Fire Department but they never did come. Those present at the fire got extinguishers from the elevator and were able to put it out; lucky, too, since the outside of the annex was cedar siding.
Records available from the 1972-73 crop year show that the Board consisted of chairman, Percy Hudson; members William Blair, Fred Blair, Harry Slagerman and Tony Koch. Mr. Hudson continued as chairman until 198 1-82 at which time William Blair held the position for a short while. Nelson Boychuk was chairman until Bergen elevator closed in 1987. Fred Blair, Leo Hadaller and Frank Seidel all held the position of vice-chairman; Mike Tataryn, Nelson Boychuk and George Turbett all had terms as secretary. Other members of the board were Henry Johnson, Irwin Friesen, George Minaker, Garry Minaker, G. Johnson, W. Oatway, M. Morrison, Keith Ryan and Bruce Galbraith.
There was always a problem at Bergen to get rail cars, partly because of the small siding. The situation improved when Bergen was put in the same block for allocation of rail cars as Winnipeg in Manitoba. In the mid-70’s the elevator handled 1.3 million bushels in one crop year, which indeed was quite an amount for those times. Jules Granger and Frank Chalet were helpers during that period. When grain measures converted to metric many people especially farmers were annoyed to say the least.
Rene has many pleasant memories while he was the manager at Bergen and then later the new Rosser elevator. He preferred the old elevator saying, ”as one gets older it’s a little harder to adapt to changes.” When the computers became famous, he adapted using them but many managers throughout the system just refused to take them on; the computer part was left to helpers. When computers were first installed in the elevators, there were problems. Eventually, time goes by as were the routine, and the computers have been part of their stay at the Bergen elevator.
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