Candace Derksen

Morden police officers doled out 13 speeding tickets this past week. 
    
According to Police Chief Brad Neduzak, one motorist was caught going 54 km/hr in a 30 km/hr zone during one of the department's speed zone enforcement checkstops. 
    
The rest of the tickets were handed out in various locations, like Route 100 where Neduzak says officers clocked speeds as high as 73 km/hr in a 50 km/hr zone, and on Highway 3 just east of Morden, with the highest speed coming in at 122 km/hr in a 100 km/hr zone.
    

Deer fawning season is just around the corner, and a provincial wildlife official is drawing attention to a frequent source of conflict that comes with it.
    
Janine Wilmot, a wildlife conflict biologist, says, often, people will see a deer fawn out on its own and, assuming it's been abandoned, they'll want to bring it to safety. 

"It's actually way better to leave it be," she explained, noting the doe will usually leave their fawns alone for hours while they go feed. "It could be six or even eight hours later when they come back."

Local fire departments continue to help battle the wildfires burning in Eastern Manitoba. 

The latest round of fire fighters to pack up and head out are from the Boyne River Mutual Aid District and includes five members from Carman-Dufferin with two apparatus, two members each from Elm Creek and Ste. Claude, five fire fighters from Miami along with a tanker truck, and a crew from the Rosenort Fire Department along with a side-by-side vehicle. 

Altona's giant Van Gogh painting is getting replaced.

Three new measles exposure sites in the region have been identified by Manitoba Public Health. 

They are:
Winkler Mennonite Church, 31 Willowdale Cres., Winkler, May 8 from 7:30 p.m. to 11 p.m.

Gretna Elementary School, Box 90, 622 9th St., Gretna, May 5, 7 and 8 from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Bus #38 before and after school, servicing Gretna Elementary School on May 5, 7 and 8 from 7:50 a.m. to 11 a.m., and 3:30 p.m. to 6:20 p.m.

Local fire fighters have packed up their gear and are out east in the R.M. of Piney helping in the wildfire effort.

As of Thursday morning, the fire had reached 7,886 hectares in size and remained 3.5 kilometres away from the townsite of Woodridge. The fire is 1.3 kilometres away from the townsite of Badger. 

Greg Zimmerman is Chief of Altona/Rhineland Emergency Services and is also Coordinator for the Pembina Triangle Mutual Aid District, which responded to a request for assistance with a task force made up of fire fighters from departments across the region. 

Border Land School Division (BLSD) officials are keeping an eye on the wildfire burning in the Carrick/Badger area.

While none of the people evacuated from Carrick or Badger are students or staff from the division, that is not the case for staff living in Woodridge who were evacuated Wednesday evening, noted Superintendent Krista Curry. She says the division has told staff and families to stay safe and follow evacuation orders, adding they'll be checking in with those affected to see how they can be supported.

A man from Zhoda was arrested after a side-by-side rollover late Saturday night, into Sunday.
    
Officers with Emerson RCMP, along with emergency medical and local fire services, responded to the incident at midnight in the R.M. of Stuartburn.
    
Authorities say the 19-year-old passenger in the side-by-side, from the R.M. of St. Andrews, was ejected from the vehicle and brought to hospital via STARS with non-life-threatening injuries.
    

Morden police are looking for a suspect they say was involved in an armed robbery in the city last week Thursday.
    
According to the department, officers were called to a hold-up alarm at a business on Thornhill Street, however, the suspect had already fled by the time they arrived. 
    
Upon investigation, police determined that a lone man walked into the business, brandished a weapon and demanded the store employee hand over goods.
    

The Town of Altona is embarking on a project it says will further push it towards climate resiliency.

Council will use a $15,000 grant, under the province's Climate Action Plan, to create a climate risk assessment and adaptation plan for the community.

The work will be divided in two phases. 

Phase 1, explained Mayor Harv Schroeder, is the assessment. It will establish context, identify risks, assess, compare and rank those risks and then identify risk mitigation and adaptation measures