Things are moving behind the scenes, even if it looks like there will never be a Dairy Queen in the Energy City again.
Local DQ owner Louise Vandenhurk however, assures everyone that work is being done, and with a little patience, Dairy Queen will return to the city that housed the chain's first location in Canada back in 1953.
The store has been shut down since an electrical fire broke out inside the building on June 18.
"At one point, when the fire first started, they thought they might have to demolish the whole building," said Vandenhurk, who said that wasn't an option they were very willing to consider. "Nobody was really sure if it was all smoke damage or if there was actual fire damage. Once you get through the fire barrier, it was all smoke damage."
It did get very hot inside. The fire inspector told her the temperature hit near 1,700 F.
"That's why it took them so long to go into the building, because it was so hot."
In Dairy Queen's absence, a couple of hole-in-the-wall ice cream shops sprung up in Estevan, granting some relief for those who wished to go out for an ice cream snack on a hot summer day.
After the fire, Dairy Queen headquarters told the local ownership they would not be rebuilding the same model. There is a new store design that came out in Minneapolis earlier this year, and Dairy Queen wanted the Estevan location to be incorporated with the new look.
Designs were made to fit the Estevan location, but Vandenhurk had to come back to Saskatchewan to find mechanical and electrical engineers. When she did, they found themselves sitting at the back of a three-month waiting list.
Vandenhurk then found a construction company that had just completed a Dairy Queen in White City this past summer. The company presented her and the insurance agent out of Regina with what she considered a very reasonable bid. The insurance company in Toronto, however, requested that they gather three bids from different contractors.
"We have a contractor, and a contractor that has done a Dairy Queen. We feel if you get somebody who has done one, you're already a month ahead," said Vandenhurk. "After a lot of push and shove, (the insurance company) got an independent company that reviews quotes and (decides) if it's a rational bid."
The contractor is Century West out of Regina, and is prepared to start work on the project as soon as they can. The contractor was approved by the insurance company on Nov. 30.
Vendenhurk also noted they have all of their equipment ordered through corporate. They are only waiting on the approval of the contractor to start getting work done on the ground.
She stressed they have no intention of leaving their current spot.
"We are wanting to get this back," she said. "I have a few staff members that can't work because they're foreign workers, and I need to get them back to work."
Vandenhurk's sister deals with immigrant employment and is in the process of getting those employees to return to work when they are needed.
"We ended up having to get some of them repermitted to other places to finish their contracts because we had no estimated time on opening. They need to work. They need to make money. So the ones that we could, we managed to get them re-directed to more food-service areas for companies that needed people."
The employees had their choice of places to go, and while two went to Regina and one to Weyburn, the rest have stayed in Estevan to work.
"They were pretty shook up. They liked working for us, and we liked having them."
