Candace Derksen

The Manitoba Government is providing nearly $215,000 in operating grants to 38 rural and northern communities this year to support festivals that promote their heritage, culture and identity.
    
About a dozen of those recipients are located in the Pembina Valley and Red River Valley. They include:

Nearly the entire collection at the Altona branch for the South Central Regional Library has been packed into boxes in preparation for the big move to its new home at the Altona Mall.
    
Branch manager, Rachael Friesen, says this week has been all about finishing the packing and getting the shelves ready to move during a push planned for Thursday and Friday. Some 600 boxes, as well as shelving, will be relocated those two evenings. 

The Province of Manitoba is supporting half-a-dozen local heritage projects this year through its Heritage Resources Conservation Grant. The grant provides funding to support projects that demonstrate a commitment to the conservation and long-term sustainability of legally protected heritage sites.

Local projects that have snagged a piece of the funding this year include:

Another merger could be in the works for Access Credit Union. Early discussions began after the board of directors for Amaranth Credit Union expressed interest in joining Access earlier this year. 

In a news release, both credit union boards indicated their value of the cooperative principles, which include investing in communities and keeping rural branches accessible and open. Joining Access, the largest credit union in Manitoba would also allow Amaranth members to benefit from better technology and innovative solutions in an ever-increasing competitive environment 

Work is still scheduled to begin on the Town of Altona's highly anticipated Southwest Drainage Project.

Phase One, culvert installation, was originally slated to start in 2021 but the project was met with a few delays that needed to be worked out before crews could start digging. This brought the start date to 2022, however work has yet to get underway. The delay this time, explained Public Works Manager Clint Derksen, is because the contractor is deployed elsewhere in the province doing unexpected flood clean up work from this spring. 

As of August 8th, the Plum Coulee Landfill will be permanently closed.
    
Municipality of Rhineland Reeve Don Wiebe explains the facility has hit capacity.

In 2019, the Province advised the Municipality that it would not be permitted to expand the landfill because there wasn't room for a new hole, but it could continue operating it until the existing hole was full or until June 2023, whichever came first. That day has now come and a decommissioning plan has begun.

The Town of Altona will once again have a local primary Municipal Emergency Coordinator.
    
In years past, that person was resident Bob Stoesz, and more recently the job was contracted out to Commissionaires, a private, non-profit security agency that offers a wide range of services.
    

Council for the Municipality of Rhineland is reviving a previous discussion regarding an expanded special services bylaw for the L.U.D. of Gretna.

Recommended by the L.U.D committee in 2019, the original proposal included more services like highway construction and maintenance as well as snow removal, on top of street lighting and fire protection that is currently offered. As well, presently exempt properties, like schools and churches, would fall subject to the levy.

However, in early 2020 Council decided to table the discussion for two years.

If you've driven past 2nd St NE in Altona you've probably noticed that part of the road has been torn up.
    
Public Works Manager, Clint Derksen, says it's all part of the final phase of last year's downtown drainage project. Two blocks of the road are being torn up between 4th Ave NE and 6th Ave NE and will be re-engineered for improved drainage.

The Municipality of Emerson-Franklin has unveiled its long-awaited economic development master plan. 
     
Part of that vision includes capturing the economic potential generated by the Canada/U.S. border crossing at Emerson by partnering with the Province to create an economic development zone on Crown land along Highway 75 north of the port of entry.