PembinaValley

A driver was taken off the road after an encounter with Altona police officers last week Friday.
    
According to authorities, officers spotted the motorist, who was known to be unlicensed, driving with a young child in the vehicle. Eventually, it was determined the driver had also consumed liquor before getting behind the wheel.
    
Police say the driver failed a roadside test and was issued an immediate roadside suspension, and their vehicle was towed. 

In part one of a two part conversation with former MJHL coach Harry Mahesh, who is now an assistant coach with the AHL champions Abbotsford Canucks of the AHL, he talks about his time in the MJHL as a player and coach, re-discovering his love of the game and more.

Being called a champion is still taking some getting used to, according to Mahesh. "I mean, it really hasn't fully sunk in yet," he says from his home in British Columbia. "It's got a nice ring to it, though."

"You run 4.1667 miles or 6.7 kilometres every hour. Then, with the time remaining, you sit down, rest, eat up, and then do it all again at the top of the next hour. It's a last-man-standing type of event. The world record has gone over 100 hours, so 4 1/2 days and 450 miles.” 

This is how Lee Siemens described the Backyard Ultra, a race created by Gary Cantrell, also known as Lazarus Lake. 

The Boundary Trails Health Centre Foundation’s 2025 Annual General Meeting held a strong focus on the health facility’s multi-phase expansion project that broke ground in 2023 and remains on track. 

Foundation Board Chair Ben Friesen said that for him, it has been exciting seeing the project take shape. 

As is tradition each June, graduates of W.C. Miller Collegiate paraded down the streets of Altona Tuesday evening in celebration of their upcoming high school graduation.

The Class of 2025 will receive their diplomas during a ceremony on Thursday.

Related stories:

• A 'bittersweet' moment as grad approaches for W.C. Miller Valedictorian

Check out photos from Tuesday's parade below.

It looked like a scene straight out of a horror film and, despite the graphic result, a three-vehicle incident north of Altona on Wednesday afternoon ended with no injuries.

The chain reaction all started when a school bus heading north on Highway 30 slowed to turn right onto PR 201, explained Greg Zimmerman, Chief for Altona/Rhineland Emergency Services (ARES). 

Buses carrying residents from the northern city of Flin Flon were being loaded up Wednesday morning, preparing to bring them back after a menacing wildfire forced thousands to flee weeks earlier.

"Welcome home to everyone," Deputy Mayor Alison Dallas-Funk said in a Facebook video Wednesday morning.

"Can't wait to have you back in community."

Buses began leaving Winnipeg and Brandon before 10 a.m., a schedule posted online showed. Residents staying elsewhere could expect to leave for Flin Flon later Wednesday, while some travelled back on their own. 

A well-known cave-like tunnel that attracts boaters to eastern Manitoba has reopened thanks to some ingenuity involving a backhoe, a grappling bucket and a crew removing fallen rock from a tight, gorge-like opening.

The tunnel between Caddy Lake and South Cross Lake, just north of the Trans-Canada Highway and west of the Ontario boundary, is the first of two cave-like tunnels along a popular water route for people in canoes, kayaks and small motorboats.

From June 20th to 22nd, the Pembina Valley was represented by athletes who travelled to Winnipeg for a notable event — Special Olympics Manitoba’s 2025 Summer Games. 

Colleen Mourant is one of the athletes who competed. She also came home with two medals that she now calls her own.  

As the graduating class of 2025 prepares to cross the stage at Garden Valley Collegiate, valedictorian Janika Friesen spent some time reflecting on all the moments leading up to this point in her education journey. 

"It's a good feeling to be done in school and to move on to a new part of my life. A new chapter," Friesen shared, "But at the same time, it is kind of sad because I've made so many connections with so many different people.”