Cecil Keast Way Street Naming

The Town of Coronach would like to recognize Cecil Keast for his lifetime devotion and pride to our community and for donating a building to the Town by naming a street in his honour on the day that would have been his 100^th birthday. South of the intersection of Centre Street and South Avenue will now be known as Cecil Keast Way.

Cecil and Isabel Keast donated the building at 117 Centre Street to the Town of Coronach in 2019 which is now known as the Tourism Booth. Cecil built the building for Canada Post and it opened for business on January 1955, on the day his daughter was born. He was postmaster from 1945 to 1978 and the building served as the post office until 1982. When he retired from the post office, Cecil set up an accounting office at 125 Centre Street. In his accounting business he enjoyed consultations with people of all ages and was happy to give free advice. He liked helping people. So he worked until he was 90!

It is an extensive list of all the local boards, committees and projects Cecil contributed to. He was secretary manager for the building and manager of Coronach’s first hospital, and he set up a fund to keep Coronach donations in Coronach after amalgamating with Weyburn. He acted as “Receiver” for the Coronach Hotel and the Rockglen Hotel. When the power plant and mine were first being set up, and the gov’t ignored all the town’s concerns, Cecil had a wartime solution to get everyone’s attention: cut the road! He worked with the Poplar River Surface Rights Association to obtain fair land prices and to make land reclamation mandatory. He was secretary for the Borderland Grazing Co-op. He was secretary for the Town of Fife Lake for twenty years. He was the secretary-treasurer for the Municipal Building Committee for the construction of the Sportsplex. He was one of the overseers of “Two Valley Construction Company” that built ten homes in Willow Bunch and ten homes in Coronach for low-income families. He was overseer for the “Big Muddy Beavers”, a non-profit organization which provided employment geared toward community improvement. He was also a Justice of the Peace.

Cecil passed away in 2019 and condolences are extended to the family as his wife Isabel passed away earlier this month. The Keast family and name is one synonymous with our community and history and we are thankful for all their contributions.

Pictured below are Collen Pritchard (Cecil’s daughter) & Mayor Cal Martin.