Marjorie Reiter, president of the credit union’s board, cuts the ribbon at the grand opening. Reiter was joined by Walter Zunti (holding ribbon on right), who is one of the credit union’s first members as the 32nd member to join back in 1963, and five-year-old Jakob Scholer, whose family has a long history of service with the institution. Scholer’s great-grandfather is one of the credit union’s founding members and a board member for 30 years. Scholer’s grandfather and mother have both served on the board.
Kenneth Brown
of The Crossroads
The Luseland Credit Union has moved into its new building. The credit union’s board and staff showed off the new office at a public event last week.
A grand opening with a ribbon-cutting ceremony was held on Jan. 10 at the Luseland Credit Union. The brief program included a lunch and guided tours of the new building. The credit union is located on Grand Avenue, the community’s main street.
General Manager Adam Franko
shows people around during a
guided tour on Jan. 10th.
Adam Franko, the credit union’s general manager, said the temperature was frigid on the day of the grand opening, but the feelings were warm inside the building and it was a fantastic day for the credit union, its staff and members. According to Franko, approximately 250 people visited the building on that day.
He said that there was a nice crowd on hand for the ribbon cutting, and the tours began after the ceremony. In addition to members, he said colleagues from neighbouring credit unions also travelled to Luseland for the celebration.
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Dignitaries on hand included Rosemarie Falk, the newly-elected member of Parliament for Battlefords-Lloydminster, and Ken Francis, who was recently nominated as the Saskatchewan Party candidate for the pending byelection in the Kindersley constituency.
Franko said the initial plan was to run tours until about 3 p.m., but the final tour of the day ended up being closer to 4 p.m. There was also a draw for a $1,000 travel voucher, a new suitcase and an assortment of travel items. The travel package was won by Shirley Knorr of Luseland.
The credit union purchased the land for its new building in 2015. The environmental work on the land began in January 2016, and it took 11 months to complete, Franko said. The land was once used for a bulk fuel station, he explained.
The foundation work began in November 2016 and the framing work began in March 2017.
The general manager said the staff moved in to the new location on Oct. 23, so it has been used for nearly three months. The staff needed more space, so it was time to say goodbye to its former home for 50 years.
“We built that (old) building in 1967 and we renovated in the ’80s,” Franko said. “We just outgrew our location.”
The new Luseland Credit Union offers a
much larger environment for staff and members.
He said that for the credit union, outgrowing a location is a good problem to have. He said staff members were working out of a server room at the old location due to the lack of space. The main floor of the old building had about 2,000-square-feet and the main floor of the new building alone has 6,500-square-feet, so the new building has roughly three times as much space as the old one.
Features of the new building that did not exist at the former location include a waiting area on the main floor for members, a staff lounge on the second floor, a presentation room on the second floor, and a sit-down teller station.
The building also has a full-service automated teller machine (ATM), whereas the old building didn’t have an ATM. It’s a next-generation ATM, so you can deposit cheques and cash without using an envelope. The ATM counts and sorts deposits, and it puts a name and copy of the cheque on the receipts.
Franko said the credit union has integrated its credential services representative – the insurance and investment representative – into the new building. Insurance regulations specify that the representative must have a separate entrance, so the front foyer has entrances to the representative and the credit union, he explained. The representative used to be located across the street in a mini mall.
The general manager said he wants people to know there’s an automated external defibrillator (AED) at the building, there for anyone to use at any time. Franko said the AED could be accessed and used 24 hours a day even to save a life at a residence in town.
“We’re really proud of the building,” he added, noting that the credit union used local contractors as much as possible. “We’re happy to have this building to continue to serve our members well into the future.”
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