St. Ola's Station opens in Limerick

The closing of Trudy’s in Limerick Township, Ont., left a gap that needed to be filled, and St. Ola’s Station along Hwy 62 has done just that. It’s a new convenience store, soon to be gas station and LCBO outlet, that will cater to the needs of year-round and seasonal residents in the municipality. Co-owner Jim Alexander talks to Bancroft This Week about this new venture.

Alexander owns St. Ola’s Station with his wife Tia and two other couples; John and Michelle Vandescheur and Scott Vermeersch and Jo-Ann Hanson. He said that renovations are going well, but they must wait for the zoning changes to happen before they can move into the new part of the building.

“But it’s going well. Lots of people coming in for ice cream and lunches,” he says.

In addition to ice cream, St. Ola’s Station offers up ice, worms, fresh produce from Switzer’s Farm, cold drinks, baked goods and prepared meals, the latter two made in-house.

“And that’ll evolve once we get into the big store. The kitchen will just be for production for the store. Right now, we’re using it as our little retail outlet. We have lots of big ideas,” he says.

Once the zoning amendment is approved, Alexander says they can proceed with getting the gas station going and applying for an LCBO outlet.

“It’s been going really well, just a little destination place. Everybody hanging out at the cottages like to come in for ice cream, snacks. So we’re doing our best to provide that out of a little 10-by-10 space right now until we can move forward,” he says.

Alexander says the renovations are going well and should be done in a couple of weeks but the zoning is a moving target and he’s not sure how long that’ll take.

“We’ve had to have engineers do traffic impact studies, site plans, storm water management, all that kind of red tape stuff. So we could be a few months before we get permission to go into there,” he says.

St. Ola’s Station is closed Mondays, but is open from Tuesday to Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. For more information please email [email protected], call 613-474-1635 or visit their website at www.stolas.ca.

Alexander tells Bancroft This Week that he wants to say a big thank you to all the people that have come out to support them already.

“The township and the county have been very supportive and hopefully we can fast track this zoning change so we can offer more.”