Robyn Wiebe

February 2nd, 2023, smoke started to come into Janzen's Paint and Decorating Ltd (JPDL) in Winkler, a business established by Doug Janzen in 1992. Customers and staff were quickly evacuated, and the city watched the anchor business burn to the ground. It was the second fire for the company, which grew from the original Winkler store to five locations across Manitoba, Brandon, Portage, Steinbach, and Winnipeg. The Steinbach location burned to the ground in July of 2022, less than a year before. A year before that, in 2021, Owner Doug Janzen died in a motorcycle accident.

There were shrieks of joy, gasps and even tears from the crowd Wednesday night at the Morden Area Foundation's 30th year of giving out grants at the yearend meeting. The brief AGM outlining the work of the organization and financial statements flowed into a time of wine and cheese and granting of $57,000 to 9 different organizations for various projects and one matching grant for the Discovery Trails Track and Field project. 

The night ended with an announcement from Sam Andrews, a founding member and Director of the Thomas Sill Foundation. 

A small group gathered outside St Paul's United Church in Morden to light a candle, read some poetry, sing a song, and hear a message of hope from Minister of the St Paul's United Church in Morden and Darlingford and a representative of this newly formed group, yet to be named, Carrie Martens. 

She outlined the purpose of the vigil. 

The Pembina Valley Humane Society (PVHS) has put out an urgent call for more volunteers. fostering an animal allows the shelter to help more animals by adding to their capacity, volunteers on the fundraising committee help fund the organization and its many needs, and right now, there are twelve empty chore shifts on the weekly chore schedule, according to Shelter Manager Jennifer Young. 

"We need people to come and help make these dogs and cats survive, and do well, and thrive in the shelter. That is what we're looking for right now."  

When John Graham was facilitating a manufacturing workshop in Winkler on Monday, one of the participants arrived late, and shared a story in the break about helping a motorist in peril on Highway 32 south of the city.

Graham said, if the story had an unhappy ending, it would have made the news, but in this case, it was good news.  

A piece of history has returned to Morden thanks to former resident David Rabinovitch. The Tip Top Trophy was given to General Manager of the Morden Bombers Mark Thiessen and his brother Andy recently, by the son of Milton Rabinovitch who had a clothing business, later named Tip Top Clothing, in Morden dating back to the 1920's.  

In a written statement, Rabinovitch described the circumstances in which the trophy was awarded to the Morden Blackhawks team.  

The City of Morden has declared the Moderate Drought Stage for residents as part of their Drought Plan, created in 2021 in response to the lake levels in Lake Minnewasta dropping over 13 feet that year. 

Deputy City Manager- Operations Santokh Randawa explains why this measure is being taken. 

Morden's Legion House One (LH1) had kitchens in 5 units replaced, thanks to Decor Cabinets, local plumbers and electricians pitching in to upgrade the dark, well worn, 42-year-old units, according to Property Manager Marina Brown. 

LH1 Resident Alana Kelly described her cabinets before the renovation was completed. 

Morden by-election candidate Megan Giesbrecht was born and raised in Winkler and moved to Winnipeg. When choosing to move back to the Pembina Valley, she decided to live in Morden for its beauty and tight-knit feel. She opened her salon business in Winkler in 2020. 

The timing of this decision and the challenges she faced, influenced her decision to run for Morden City Council.     

Morden's new school, set to open next school year, has officially been named and more of the details about programming for the much-anticipated new learning space are being released. 

Western School Division Board Chair Brian Fransen said the board passed the official name at the last public meeting, as they needed to submit a name to the government. A small change has been made to the name previously announced.