Downtown businessman Ken Sorensen is doing his part to keep his century old building, up to date.
Last month, Sorensen replaced the upstairs windows facing out onto 50 Street. The last time they were updated, was in 1976, a time when the town was working on a similar project they’re working on again today: downtown revitalization.
“You’ve got to keep up or the town will become a ghost town,” said Sorensen of keeping a fresh front to shops. While Sorensen does his part to keep his storefront modern, there’s a lot to be said about the inside. Once a pool hall and even a barber shop, TNT Tradin Post, is also a museum and houses lots of quirks — a stuffed polar bear hangs out in the corner with a carved mahogany mermaid and two other stuffed bears.
Goldilocks and the three bears, he’s named it. Part shop, part museum, Sorensen also has memorabilia collected over the years including his first birthday card. He also has pictures of what Innisfail looked like a hundred years ago when his building was still new. The mural of the post office, painted on the side of the building east of TNT, was where the post office once was.
“A lot of this is memories of good times with friends,” he said of the most apparent décor in the store — stuffed heads and skins of animals hunted.
The Tradin Post is home to more than 100 animal mounts and come from more than 50 years of collecting. Collecting and trading is what he does and his store has everything from olds CDs to antiques.
“It brings people in from all around to see what’s in here,” explained manager Tara Saunders who said the biggest attraction is the polar bear.
The town hosted public forum in May and public workshop in July to gather feedback from the revitalization project that will run along 50 St. from McDonalds to Fas Gas.
Drawings of the project, which will detail the look of the area five, ten and even 25 years into the future, is expected to be ready for council sometime November.
