The staff at Boundary Co-op continues to work hard to keep its communities stocked, safe and healthy as their role is getting more attention.
With the COVID-19 pandemic raging around the world, communities are struggling under the restrictions and needs. Many businesses are closed, and in some cases, have been shut down by the province. Grocery stores are among those named as essential services, for the simple reason that pandemic or no pandemic, people have to eat. Boundary Co-op operates grocery stores and other businesses in several local communities and has been doing their best to keep those towns going, doing it with a smile. Their work has been appreciated.
The closure of classrooms in Manitoba will continue indefinitely after the original April 13 deadline.
On March 31, Education Minister Kevin Goertzen announced the province would be keeping the classrooms shut. Originally, they were closed on March 23, one week before spring break, and were to remain closed for a week after the stoppage. However, with the COVID-19 pandemic numbers still rising in Manitoba, they have decided to keep students out of schools for a longer period.
According to Turtle Mountain School Division Superintendent Tim De Ruyck, the extension was not too surprising.
“Based on the comments the public health officer was making, I think it was unrealistic to think classes would be back on April 13,” De Ruyck explained. “We already had a sense we would be looking at a longer duration.”
Although much is still up in the air, Boissevain-Morton started the long process of replacing the community’s lagoon.
On March 25, council held a public meeting to lay out their preliminary plans. As the COVID-19 situation is in place, there were only a few spaces available for the public to sit in the Council Chambers, in order to deal with social distancing concerns. However, the meeting was available on live stream and through conference call so everyone would have a chance to comment.
The lagoon situation has been many years in the making. As Head of Council Judy Swanson said, the municipality has not met the regulations in the existing lagoon on the southwest end of Boissevain for many years.
While the community watches one of the company’s elevators come down, they are learning the other will soon be abandoned.
A letter from Paterson Grain to customers this month explained that the company’s operations in Boissevain would be ended by April 30. It said the difficult decision came as a result of “current economic pressure in the agricultural industry.”
The elevator on the east end of South Railway Street was built by N.M. Paterson in 1960. They have been a part of Boissevain’s agricultural scene and skyline ever since.
Although operations at the Boissevain Community Theatre are going well, those involved are hoping to get some help and make a few changes inside in the near future.
The theatre was constructed in 2012, and has been open nearly eight years. Replacing the old building, which was shut down in 2009, it has been one of the great community success stories. With nearly a decade under its belt, it continues in that vein.
“Overall, it is going very well,” said Theatre Manager Brad Peters. “The theatre is operating in a sustainable manner, financially speaking. That is important, I think, given the situation in our community at the moment financially.”
Parents wanting their children to enjoy life on the diamond this spring will have one less thing to worry about.
Boissevain Minor Ball started taking registrations for the 2020 season on February 21, with the deadline being March 8. According to Minor Ball President Chad Reimer, they were not sure how many registrations they had taken in by early last week, but he said for boys’ and girls’ ball, they had around 150 of them last year.
“We are one of the highest registrations in the region,” Reimer stated. “A lot of teams in smaller towns struggle, they want to partner up. I’ve gotten calls from towns already that want to have teams together, but I have been waiting to see what our numbers are first.”
Another community need has been filled by a committed professional with help from a longtime health committee.
This January, Lori Sicinski launched Prairie Soleworks, a foot care practice. The longtime nurse in Boissevain said she wanted to provide a needed service and move forward as a professional.
“I got into this because I wanted to further my education and specialize in a department of nursing,” Sicinski explained. “It allows myself to do business on my days off at Westview Lodge and have more time with my family, which is extremely important to me.”
She started the Nursing Foot Care program in April of 2019 through distance education and training at Assiniboine Community College in Brandon. It was an eight-month process and she graduated with Academic Honours in December.
Anyone who feels younger people are shy at taking outside responsibilities has not met Jake Ayre.
The young Minto farmer recently took on his third major role in an agriculture-based committee. Two are with Keystone Agricultural Producers and a third is connected to the provincial government. In each case, Ayre is all in and ready to go.
Within KAP, Ayre is the co-chair of the Manitoba Young Farmers Group, and now a second vice-president of the parent board. He said he first got involved in the Manitoba agriculture organization when he was in his last year of agriculture studies at the University of Manitoba. In 2017, they were asked to bring a resolution to the floor of the KAP AGM. The class came up with one regarding a carbon tax, a very controversial subject in agriculture. They took it to the meeting, and Ayre was one of the students who spoke to it. There was considerable division and debate on the resolution, and the three students involved felt they were being misrepresented. They responded and did well enough that their resolution passed.
After a lot of work and plenty of anticipation, the remodeled Boundary gas bar and convenience store on Mill Road looks as if it just stepped out of a Co-op commercial.
The store was open and the pumps were running on Wednesday, February 12. According to Boundary General Manager Ryan Polnik, it is good to get the facility running almost exactly on schedule.
“We had a delay there at one point putting the temporary tank on site,” Polnik stated, “but it really went pretty well. It’s good to have it up and running.”
There are many new features to the spot. Instead of the two pumps and four nozzles at the gas bar, there are four pumps and eight nozzles. There are screens and the more modern “pay-at-the-pump” option. As well as regular and premium fuel, there is also a mid-range option. The canopy gives a little extra protection from inclement weather. There is room for more fuel storage as well.
Turtle Mountain School Division is in the process of planning its finances for the next school year, as well as looking at longer-term goals.
It is the time of year the division starts putting its budget together for the upcoming fall. In fact, Superintendent Tim De Ruyck said they started with consultations on November 20. They received their notification regarding provincial funding on January 30, which allows them to put proper numbers in their appropriate spots.
As has become usual, the news from Winnipeg was not great. De Ruyck said they once again saw their provincial support drop 2% on their guarantee. He said it is a dollar decrease of $120,000 when all is said and done. As well, they are trying to stick with the province’s request to put a ceiling on local taxation of the same 2%.
For the first time in two and a half decades, Boissevain will not be participating in Communities in Bloom this year.
The decision was made by the Beautification Committee earlier this week. According to Boissevain-Morton Head of Council Judy Swanson, it was unanimous. She said it started when she contacted the Communities in Bloom National Committee to find out where they thought Boissevain fit in. The community won the Grand Champions category in 2019 and was looking to the next year. Swanson said they were offered a spot in the Circle of Champions. If that sounds familiar, it is because Boissevain has been in that category in the past.
“We could have been in Circle of Champions,” Swanson explained, “but they had done it. The group said it is difficult to get motivated when you get where you want to reach. Plus, I’m thinking it is time for the group to plant the flowers and enjoy the flowers with the pressure off.”
With an overwhelming response, the Mennonite Central Committee will be able to keep many people warm this winter.
In their 100th year, the MCC held a special day on January 18. Called the Great Winter Warm-up, it saw thousands of comforters completed across the continent, destined for those in need. In the Whitewater Mennonite Church in Boissevain, they were able to do their part.
“Saturday, January 18 at Whitewater Mennonite Church in Boissevain was a special day,” said local organizer Rita Engbrecht. “We made 25 comforters.”
She said a number of them were brought in already made, but most of them were tied at the all-day event. There were 23 people who showed up, including three children who helped out.
After 58 years of summer sports programming, the Legion Athletic Camp will operate no more.
The well-regarded camp located at the International Peace Garden announced it would not be running in the summer of 2020. First opened in 1962, the camp has seen generations of athletes from inside and outside the local area spend a part of their holidays learning more about a number of sports. However, for several reasons, it could not continue.
The move was first announced on the Legion Athletic Camp Facebook page on January 11. According to Director Andrew Kitchen, there were different issues that came up.
“The decision was made by a board that encompasses some Legion Directors, people representing interested parties, and a few coaches,” Kitchen explained. “They chose this time due to the rising costs to run the camp and the lack of athletes that were attending. It was very difficult to close the camp, which in my personal opinion is why it took so long to close this year. There were a lot of friendships and personal connections that were tied to the camp, which made it difficult to close for sentimental reasons.”
Southwest Seniors Housing has the start-up money in place. Now they need to know who wants in.
The group working on developing an assisted living facility in Boissevain had a fundraising goal of $2 million to reach by the end of 2019. According to Boissevain-Morton Head of Council Judy Swanson, they were able to meet the expectations.
“It’s very exciting,” Swanson stated. “We’re very proud of the community, how they have stepped up. This development will be good for the community, good for the local economy. We are the envy of many communities around us.”
She said they reached the goal right before the New Year, but did not have it all tallied until this week. There were many parts that made the puzzle work in the last few months. There was a successful community auction in November, a Christmas tree auction in December, and a generous donor who agreed to match any donations up to $50,000. This last piece really made it work.
A generous gift from one of the most important industries in Boissevain is helping to inch the assisted living project up closer to its $2 million fundraising goal.
Southwest Seniors Housing received $40,000 from Western Archrib on December 23. According to General Manager Sid Braybrook, he contacted the head office in Edmonton and discussed the possibility of a donation, getting the go ahead fairly easy.
“Certainly Western Archrib wants to be involved in the community,” Braybrook explained. “There are not actually that many community projects that come along that we’re able to be involved in. We felt this project warrants this support. Western Archrib has been in this community since 1987. This project was something that inspired me to go to ownership and say we should get involved in it.”
Boissevain Christmas Cheer is making the Yuletide season a merry one for more people in 2019.
On Wednesday, December 18, the group and volunteers gathered at the Parish Hall to put together Christmas hampers for those in need in the community. Jim Dickinson has been involved in Christmas Cheer for 10 years now, and he said everything flows pretty automatically each season.
“We had our first meeting at the end of November,” Dickinson stated. “We got our group together to organize what we were doing. We all have our own jobs we do; we pretty much know what we have to do. We have a few new people this year, so we can spread out the tasks pretty well.”
For those who knew him, worked with him or even just lived in Boissevain within the last forty years, the impact of former Mayor Ed Anderson is almost impossible to quantify.
Anderson, who passed away at the age of 81 on December 5, will stand as one of the titans of the community’s history. With a council career that began when many residents were not even born, and several terms as mayor spanning nearly thirty years, Mayor Ed left a stamp on Boissevain that may never again be repeated. One would be hard pressed to find an area of the community he did not touch and did not make better. To say he will be missed is perhaps the greatest understatement to be made after his passing.
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The Old Fashioned Community Auction helped Southwest Seniors Housing Inc. inch closer to its $2 million fundraising goal.
Held at the Legion Hall on November 29, the event, which included live, rainbow and silent auctions as well as a pie and bake sale, was the hub of action on the Friday evening. The event was packed and for about three hours, Wright’s Auction Service called for bids, while the participants called back. In the end, everything tallied more than $48,000 for the cause.
“It was just a wonderful evening,” said committee member George Heide as soon as the auction ended. “Everyone had a lot of fun and we were able to raise a lot of money for our project.”
Where the crops of private farmers rightfully took most of the attention during the disaster known as the fall of 2019, a pair of more philanthropic harvests were also stalled, seemingly until the spring of 2020.
For more than 20 years, there has been an annual crop for the Canadian Foodgrains Bank in the area. The Boissevain, Morton, Whitewater Growing Project has been doing seeding and harvest to help the world’s needy every year, most recently on land rented from the Fraser family near Fairfax. This year, the rain and snow put a strain on all producers in the area, making the process of getting crops off onerous and in some cases impossible. What of the growing project?
Hopes are a new addition to the lineup will put a renewed bang into the Boissevain & District Chamber of Commerce’s annual Christmas promotion.
There will be draws for Chamber Bucks and there will be a visit by Santa, as there is every Yuletide season. This year, however, a new idea for Boissevain, but an established one by the sponsor, will be coming – a Christmas Tree Auction.
Sheri Dickinson, who handles memberships and organizes the Christmas promotion for the Chamber, said the concept is the brainchild of Boundary Co-op. They had previously held the event in Deloraine and it worked well. The Co-op has donated 20 trees to Boissevain School, and each class is currently diligently working on decorating them. The idea is for each one to be auctioned off at the Legion Hall on December 5. Dickinson said in Deloraine, they followed themes, with one done as a big Santa Claus.
The Boissevain and Morton Foundation made an important contribution to the community, with a special 2020 on the way.
The Foundation made its disbursements on Thursday evening, November 14 at the Boissevain Curling Club. This year, the total of interest donated through designated and undesignated grants came to $117,265. The designated grants are ones where the donors choose the recipients. Undesignated see the Foundation Board meeting and making decisions from the many applications from worthy community groups. At one time earlier in its history, the breakdown was 75/25% in favour of designated grants. However, this year, the undesignated was at $57,000, while the designated came to $53,600. Executive Director Raylene Conway-Smith said since the special program Endow Manitoba started, it has made more money available for board-directed granting.