PembinaValley

As the 2025 crop season begins, farmers across the prairies are already on high alert for potential insect damage. Dr. Meghan Vankosky, a research scientist in field crop entomology with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, provides insights into what farmers might expect this year based on last year's conditions and winter observations.

Funeral For:  David Adrian 
Funeral Date: May 14, 2025 
David Adrian, 83, of Steinbach formerly of Plum Coulee, passed away Monday, May 5th at Rest Haven Care Home. He is survived by his wife Lynda, 1 daughter, 2 sons, 1 sister, 2 brothers, and their families. He was predeceased by 2 sons. 
Viewing will be at Crossings Funeral Care Thursday, May 8th from 2 to 4pm. 
The celebration of life for David Adrian will be held Wednesday, May 14th at 10:30am at Crossings Funeral Care, Steinbach. 
Arrangements by Crossings Funeral Care, Steinbach.  

Funeral For:  Frank Wiebe 
Funeral Date: May 11, 2025 
Frank Wiebe, 80, of Winnipeg passed away Thursday, May 1st at Health Sciences Centre. He is survived by his wife Barb, 2 sons, and their families.  
The funeral service for Frank Wiebe will be held Sunday, May 11th at 2:30pm at Portage Avenue Church, 1420 Portage Avenue, with ash interment at Chapel Lawn Cemetery at a later date.  
Viewing will be at the church prior to the service.  
Donations may be made to Heart and Stroke Foundation.

Arrangements by Wiebe Funeral Home, WInkler. 

Funeral For:  Rita Sawatzky 
Funeral Date: May 11, 2025 
Rita Sawatzky, 94, of Steinbach passed away Monday, May 5th at Bethesda Regional Health Centre. She is survived by 2 daughters, 1 son, and their families. She was predeceased by her first husband Jacob Klassen, her second husband Frank Sawatzky, and 1 grandson. 
Cremation has taken place. 
A memorial service for Rita Sawatzky will be held Sunday, May 11th at 2pm at Birchwood Funeral Chapel with ash interment at a later date. 
Donations may be made to MCC. 

Both the cities of Winkler and Morden will be conducting tests today of their respective outdoor weather warning siren systems. The tests will begin at noon, with Morden also testing its CodeRED system.

The outdoor sirens are designed to alert citizens that are outdoors of dangerous events such as tornadoes, chemical spills and large-scale fires so they can seek shelter indoors or shelter in place.

If you ask anyone in Altona what is the bumpiest stretch of road in town, a lot folks would probably say 14th Avenue North East. Mayor Harv Schroeder says that is about to change shortly, with work slated for the concrete stretch in the coming weeks.

"Nelson River Construction will have their saw crew in as soon as Friday, and next week will complete a couple of small patches in preparation for diamond grinding, which is scheduled to start on Tuesday after the long weekend, weather permitting, and that is along 14th Avenue North East."

Rhineland Municipality is trying to get ahead of the game by moving forward with a study on a future Plum Coulee lagoon expansion.

"We want to proceed with that," said Reeve Don Wiebe. "The capacity is still okay for the moment, but these things take a while to build, so we feel we should try to start and plan on enhancing the lagoon. The study, we will do that in terms of nature of design. I'm sure we will have to purchase some additional land, and put in some additional cells."

With it being Emergency Preparedness Week in Canada, Manitoba's Emergency Management Organization is reminding us of an Alert Ready test message on multiple communication channels today at 1:55 p.m. 

Testing of all components is an important part of any public alerting system, and provides an opportunity to validate and improve the end-to-end performance and reliability of the system to ensure it operates as intended.

The test alert will be distributed on this radio station and compatible wireless devices. 

For the second year in a row, Aura Studio and Genesis House are teaming up for an event as exciting as it is beneficial — a spin-a-thon. 

2025’s event, which will take place at Dead Horse Cider on May 10th, will consist of a whole 12 of high-energy cycling for a cause.  

“We're excited to bring some energy to that space with our spin studio,” says Sophie Gerbrandt, the community resource coordinator with Genesis House.  

This past weekend, the Carman Dufferin Fire Department had its hands full.  

“We had a grass fire call starting on Thursday, then we had another one on Saturday and then two on Sunday,” says Chief Chris Lemky of the department. 

The grass fires all had a similar cause — the dry, windy, and hot conditions that came along with the first weekend of May.