Regina businesses changing focus to spring

The winter that never was in Regina is now officially morphing into spring.

A number of businesses are in the process of packing up their winter machinery and accessories and putting out their spring and summer merchandise. It’s not uncommon to spot lawnmowers already on display around the Queen City.

“We actually sold a few in February and a couple garden tractors,” said Mark Ellsworth of Mark’s Mini-Tune on Hill Avenue.

But while the interest in mowers has been there for a number of weeks, it was virtually non-existent on the snow blower side of his business.

“This winter was the worst I have on record of 21 years of being on computer. It was horrible. I don’t want to do another one.”

He said because of the lack of snow they didn’t do nearly as much service work as a typical winter. Since the demand wasn’t there, Ellsworth added they were forced to put away their snow blowers.

“We’ll rebound. You don’t get that revenue back. You just hope for an early spring, which we have, and a busy summer and you just kind of try and forget about it.”

It was a similar situation for Dennis Jeworski of Rosemont Pro-Hardware. 

“After the first snowfall we did very little repairs,” he said. “It didn’t kill us but it didn’t help.”

Mission Ridge Ski Hill On Last Legs

The regular snow and ice was also absent out at Mission Ridge Ski Hill.

“This has been the strangest winter I’ve been through in quite a few years out here already,” said the hill’s Don Williams.

“We didn’t have one. There wasn’t a winter this year,” he quickly corrected himself.

Williams said the hill will be open over the weekend. Crews will just have to carefully move the snow around to where it needs to go. After that, they’ll assess whether to remain open or close down for the season. If it’s the latter, that will be several weeks earlier than usual. The ski hill was also two weeks late in opening this year.

“The last little while has been real tough. I mean it’s pretty hard to get people into the skiing mood when they’re more thinking about raking the lawn or going to the driving range.”

Still, Williams makes an intriguing pitch for anyone who may want to get that last crack at a winter activity.

“It’s absolutely wonderful skiing in this. It’s beautiful. Sit out on the deck, have a beer, ski in a t-shirt…and can you ever work on your tan. You get a double whammy off the snow and from the sun.”