Rural Roundup — March 30, 2023

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This article was published 30/03/2023 (1268 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BALDUR

Forty new daycare spaces are coming to the Baldur area, and the director of the Baldur Early Learning Centre says it’s welcome news.

“We are over the moon excited,” Jaimie Godard said after the announcement was made by the province last month. But it will still take time to figure things out in terms of layout and curriculum, she added.

A ready-to-move building will be located across from the Baldur Co-op. The new building will be home to the preschool infant program, Godard said.

“We don’t know a whole lot [more] yet, but that is our plan.”

The Baldur Early Learning Centre currently serves 12 children, including four babies and eight preschool kids, with a staff of three full-time employees, including Godard.

Per regulations, one employee can be responsible for eight preschool children, Godard said.

“If, with the new spots, we take eight babies and 32 preschool kids, we will need five or six staff to help with that.”

Currently, the Baldur Early Learning Centre provides daycare for infants between two months and two years old and preschool children between two and six years old. The new spaces mean the daycare can possibly expand the ages of children they take in.

“We haven’t had a school-age program for children ages six to 12 years. The new spaces might be handy for use to utilize those kids as well,” she said.

There is always a need for new daycare spaces, Godard added, even in a rural communities. She’s had inquiries from Glenboro parents about spots in the program.

The new building is expected to arrive this fall.

» The Gazette

GLENBORO

After ongoing discussions between area government and health-care representatives, Glenboro Hospital’s emergency department will now be open two days a week.

The schedule, which commenced on the last day of February, allows the department to operate Tuesday and Wednesdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., and will continue through this month.

Chuck Radford, mayor of the Municipality of Glenboro-South Cypress, said there needs to be enough doctors to keep the emergency room open two days a week in the future.

Glenboro Hospital is also facing a potential loss of its lab services in light of the partial closure of the emergency service.

“We are more concerned with keeping the lab open for five days a week, because we have enough personnel and enough staff to run that thing Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.,” Radford said.

If the lab were only open a few days a week, he said, it would create a bottleneck for patients having to make appointments ahead of time for testing. Another key area of concern attached to limited lab access is the loss of business for the community. If residents have to travel to other towns and cities to get lab work done, they will likely also pay for their prescriptions there, he said.

Radford said he was not sure when the lab service schedule will be altered from its current five-day availability. Two doctors who practise at Glenboro Hospital will leave at the end of this month, but discussions are underway to bring on another doctor from Killarney on a short-term contract of three months at a time, he said.

» The Gazette

The south end of Broadway Street in Glenboro is home to a new business called the Vault Health and Wellness Centre, which opened on Feb. 27.

The building, located at 106 Broadway St., formerly served as a branch of Westoba Credit Union. Sara Smith, owner and operator of the business, said an open house on Feb. 25 drew more than 100 people to see the newly renovated building.

“One person said, ‘I could not imagine it not being a bank, and now that I’ve been here, I can’t imagine it ever was a bank,’” Smith said.

Cliff Cullen, MLA for Spruce Woods, presented Smith with a congratulatory message on the grand opening of the business.

Smith, along with resident hairstylists Sandy Kemp and Sidney Coates, gave tours of the location at the open house, including rooms for massage therapy and a hair salon.

Smith, who is a massage therapist, is currently interviewing for estheticians to provide services at the centre.

» The Gazette

ARGYLE

After nearly 35 years working as a municipal weed supervisor, Grant Shewfelt, who worked in the municipalities of Argyle and Lorne, will retire on April 30.

What he’ll most miss, Shewfelt said, is the early morning start he always got when working in his chosen field.

“I felt like if I was up at that time of the day, getting work done, I was beating the rest of the world,” he said.

Growing up on a farm, Shewfelt went on to graduate from the University of Manitoba with a diploma in agriculture. This, along with his background working with chemical companies during the summer, proved to make him the right candidate for the weed supervisor position he first took in the fall of 1988.

A big part of Shewfelt’s career has been to keep a look out for biological invaders. Every weed, with the exception of milkweed, that he’s seen in the provincial management program he worked under, has come to Manitoba from another continent.

The most common ways to control weed that Shewfelt has seen include herbicide application and use of biological tools. With leafy spurge, the most invasive weed he dealt with in his time as supervisor, control methods include chemical applications and biological tactics such as use of spurge beetles.

“Do all the things you need to do to avoid getting weeds, to keep them in check,” Shewfelt said. “Herbicides are part of that management plan.”

Shewfelt said the province’s Noxious Weed Act was changed about seven years ago, pivoting its focus from destroying weeds to proactive management control. This approach, he said, has been integral to his work as a weed supervisor.

» The Gazette

WAWANESA

On March 22, 2022, Wawanesa resident Brian Bolack uploaded his first video on YouTube called “Coffee Walks and Whatever.”

Bolack and his wife Deb started recording and uploading the videos to build a following and move forward to a monetized YouTube channel. The couple decided to work toward monetizing their channel as a way to deal with financial burdens stemming from ongoing health issues.

Theie granddaughter, Emberley Lilley, has been battling lymphoblastic leukemia for the past several years. Her illness has meant lengthy stays at hospitals in Winnipeg, emergency travel and many appointments and tests. The travel expenses, hotel stays and other needs have caused her parents to struggle financially.

Widespread support for the child and her parents has been greatly appreciated by the whole family, Bolack said, and it’s the reason her grandparents plan to use the income from their YouTube channel to help other families in the same situation.

» The Gazette

KILLARNEY

More than $12,000 was raised at the Lakeside Christian School’s annual fundraiser recently, which will help the school erase a major mortgage debt.

The event, which featured the musical Szakacs family for entertainment and a dinner, had a great turnout, said principal Nancy Reimer.

“We had 180 people attend, and the food and friendship was phenomenal. The Szakacs family had a wide variety of music styles, which included country, Celtic, kids’ music and contemporary Christian. It was amazing.”

Thanks to the success of the event, the school can now pay off nearly its entire outstanding debt, Reimer said. The school owed $13,000 on a million-dollar extension that was build in 2016. Thanks to the donations secured at the annual fundraiser, that debt will be paid off by the end of this year.

“That is a million dollars that we will have paid off in seven years. It’s pretty incredible,” Reimer said.

» The Guide