Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 26/12/2024 (266 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

DAUPHIN

Dauphin residents will be paying more for their treated water in the new year following the recent approval of a rate increase by the Public Utilities Board. As of Jan. 1, 2025, the minimum quarterly charge for 5/8-inch standard household connection will increase to $89.59 from the current $79.12, a 13.2 per cent rise.

That minimum will rise further to $92.96 on July 1, 2025, and to $95.39 on Jan. 1, 2026. Additionally, in the new year water and sewer used over the minimum will be billed at $3.44 per cubic metre instead of the current $3.04 per cubic metre, again, a 13.2 per cent increase. Those rates will increase to $3.59 and $3.67 per cubic metre on July 1, 2025 and Jan, 1,2026, respectively.

The new rates will be reflected in the first quarter billing in April.

“In terms of importance for the city, it’s ramping up and continuing with slow and steady increases, as opposed to not doing a change for five years and then it increasing by substantial double digit percentages,” city manager Sharla Griffiths said, adding there was no increase in water and sewer rates in 2024.

The city will begin the process of another water rate study in anticipation of the lagoon expansion project set to begin next year.

“We had hoped that the lagoon project would have started earlier and then we could have included the cost of that lagoon project in the rates, however, it didn’t happen,” she said. So instead of waiting so that there was no increase in 2024, 2025 or 2026 and then having a huge increase in 2027 we’ve done this small two-year order, basically recovering 2025 and recovering 2026 for increases.”

The city of Dauphin anticipates another increase in 2027.

– The Dauphin Herald

ROBLIN

The municipality of Roblin is hoping to find 100 householders willing to take part in a pilot project to keep their food and organic kitchen waste out of the landfill.

The project, introduced at the municipality’s ratepayer’s meeting back in November, uses an innovative countertop appliance from a company called FoodCycler.

“We’re estimating 40 to 50 per cent of waste coming in to our landfill is organic,” noted head of council Robert Misko at the ratepayer’s meeting. “If we can get rid of that and keep it out of the stream, it just might make our pit last a whole lot longer.”

The appliance is said to reduce household food waste by up to 90 per cent by transforming food scraps into a nutrient-rich soil-like substance.

“If we were to reduce by 50 (per cent) we’d be leaps and bounds ahead of where we are today,” Misko said at the time.

The units resemble blenders and are able to handle all veggie and fruit scraps; meat, fish and poultry; poultry and fish bones; beans, seeds and legumes; eggs and eggshells; shellfish including shells; and coffee grinds and tea leaves, including coffee filters and tea bags

– The Roblin Review

KILLARNEY (two photos)

Linus always had his blanket. He was a good friend to Charlie Brown, and everywhere Linus went, so did the blanket. And with this image of the well-loved cartoon kid in mind, and his constant fabric accompaniment, local sewers have been running up similar blankets and quilts, in order to bring some solace to other children.

The Shamrock Stitchers, who meet up every couple of weeks at the Mary Ann Moore Wellness Centre to sew together, have spent the last several months creating quilted blanket tops for the Winnipeg chapter of what is called ‘Project Linus.’ And this week they were ready to hand the beauties on.

“We are donating 20 of these quilts to Project Linus, for distribution to underprivileged/abused children,” said Susan Van De Velde, one of the Killarney sewers. “The name comes from Linus’s blanket, in that they bring comfort to a child. When these kids first come in for assessment, or for medical help or for interviews, they are invited to pick a quilt to keep with them through the process.”

Van De Velde said she had been donating fabric to the Project Linus group for around 10 years. And this past spring, when Cindy Driedger of Project Linus Canada asked her if she and the Shamrock Stitchers would be interested in participating with the project, they were hooked.

The group, which includes some eight to 10 members, got busy sewing and piecing. Eventually 20 beautiful quilt tops, resplendent with their squares and rectangles of colour, were ready for pickup on Wednesday, Dec. 11.

The final finish – attaching the base layer and fill, and sewing the entire quilt together – will take place by other volunteers in the Winnipeg area, she said. These finished quilts will then join other creations, and be distributed where they are needed in the future. One day they will be placed into the hands of a young person in distress, said Driedger. Hundreds of them are handed out each year to children, and each one is precious, often kept by the recipient for years.

– The Killarney Guide

STANDUP PHOTO: With the tip of the hat and a friendly wave, blow up characters standing on a front lawn of a Minnedosa home on the community’s west side cast a festive mood as the big day approaches. Even though the world has changed a lot, the holiday celebrates joy and love, as friends and family gather to observe the celebration. (Darrell Nesbitt/The Minnedosa Tribune)

BOISSEVAIN

Hockey dreams do come true, just not always all at once.

When Tyson Kozak made his NHL debut with the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday, Dec. 5, he was able to have the moment all young hockey players dream of. The Souris native also came within a goalie bump of scoring his first marker against one of the best netminders in the business.

While that milestone would ultimately have to wait just a little longer, he did have the pleasure of skating out into the upstate New York ice in front of family. According to his mother Michelle, the whole affair, including him coming to Buffalo from the minor league Rochester Americans, was a bit of a whirlwind.

“It is all surreal at this time for us as a family,” she said. “We are still all in disbelief to be honest. He got called up November 29, he was actually in Rochester dressed for the warm-up when the coach came in and said ‘Buffalo wants you’ so he quickly got undressed and headed to the airport in Buffalo to meet the team as they were headed to New York to take on the Islanders.”

Kozak had played his minor hockey in Souris, and suited up for the Southwest Cougars AAA team. He was selected in the sixth round of the junior draft, moving on to the Portland Winterhawks of the Western Hockey League. Playing a handful of games for the squad in the 2018-19 season, he joined the team full time the next year.

Kozak appeared in games for four seasons for the team, during a period shortened by COVID, and was taken in the seventh round of the NHL draft in 2021 by the Buffalo Sabres. In 2022, he joined the Rochester Americans of the American Hockey League.

He was called up but did not make the lineup immediately. He did not wait too long, however. His mother said they got a call from the team on Dec. 4 that he would be playing the next day.

Not only would he be playing, he would be facing the Winnipeg Jets. This would mean his debut would be given a bit of a spotlight on TSN and be broadcast in the region where the whole province could watch, including people who saw him play growing up. Of course, his family would be in a box in the arena, being occasionally featured on the TSN cameras.

– The Boissevain Recorder

DAUPHIN

This past June, patients, families, visitors and staff at the Dauphin Regional Health Centre were delighted to see the four new Smilezones open to the public. These areas help families through some of those tougher days when kids are not feeling their best, tests need to be done, and when waiting rooms get to be both stressful and boring.

The Smilezone in the Dauphin hospital turned all that around with brightly painted murals, kids’ games and interactive stations, thanks to funding help from Tim Hortons in Dauphin.

The initiative was spearheaded by Westman & Area Tim Hortons co-owner, Rhonda Pardy, who learned about this initiative from a fellow Tim Hortons executive who was also sitting on the Smilezone Board and was visiting the Brandon Hospital with the Smilezone team for a current project. He invited Pardy to join him at the hospital to learn more about this initiative. That was in August of 2022.

That legacy project at the Brandon Regional Health Centre was in memory of Satwant Kaur Grewal and Dieter Kuntz, who dedicated their lives to health care in Brandon. The legacy project was funded by their children whose father was a psychiatrist at the Brandon Mental Health Center, and their mother a nurse at the Brandon General Hospital.

Upon seeing the transformation at the hospital, Pardy says she was blown away by the whole concept and soon after became a board member herself. She was so taken with the idea that she instigated a Smilezone for a hospital in Newfoundland in memory of her late husband, Clair Pardy. Over a single weekend in June 2023, the team transformed seven new Smilezones in different areas at Janeway Children’s Health and Rehabilitation center in St Johns, NL.

Last month, through the Tim Hortons Holiday Smile Cookie Campaign, the Brandon Tim Hortons locations raised $11,000 to transform the Brandon Clinic through the Smilezone Foundation. The upcoming Smile Cookie Campaign in May will also be raising funds for the Smilezone, where again half of the money raised will go towards that project.

– Discover Westman