Candace Derksen

The Chief of Police in Winkler is welcoming news of the Province's recently expanded Electronic Monitoring Program.
    
Initially launched in August in Winnipeg, the program was extended to some rural communities, including Winkler, last month. 

"This is new to the Winkler area," said Ryan Hunt. "I think it's a really good step towards keeping our communities and victims safer."

An older model tractor appears to be the cause of a shop fire south of Miami on Monday, according to information provided by Miami Fire and Rescue in a social media brief. 
    
Crews were called to the structure fire around Noon and discovered black smoke coming from inside the steel quonset. The department says fire fighters acted fast and were met with blackout conditions once inside, where they did some initial fire knockdown before opening the large sliding doors in an effort to gain better access and allow for ventilation.

After 5 years of diligent hard work, a grassroots group looking to build a new pedestrian bridge in Plum Coulee has finally been given some good news. 

Spokesperson, June Letkeman, says the Province has finally approved the permit for the structure, intended to help pedestrian and cycling traffic quickly and safely travel between the north and south sides of town, divided by a drain.

"I am very, very, very excited about this news," beamed Letkeman, noting the first application for this project was submitted to Manitoba Transportation and Infrastructure in April 2019. 

A man from Morden has a January court date after police were called to a reported assault at his home at the end of November.
    
Officers arrived at around 4:30 a.m. and, after speaking with the woman in the home, learned the man, who is her husband, had hit her in the face. The husband was arrested and lodged in police cells until sober.

No one was injured when two vehicles came face-to-face at Thornhill Street and Route 100 in Morden Sunday evening.
    
According to Morden Police Service, a van with 10 passengers inside was heading east on Thornhill when a car turned off Route 100, forcing the van's driver to veer into the ditch in order to avoid a collision.
    
The car left the scene, but was later identified by police, and the driver was cautioned about staying at the scene of an accident.
 

A new biological method for treating sludge at the Plum Coulee lagoon is showing some promise.
    
Municipality of Rhineland council approved the 20-week treatment, through Clean Water Pro based in Carman, earlier this year.

"We're still waiting for an independent report, because that's what they agreed to, but their own report looks pretty encouraging," said Wiebe. 

According to the information supplied by the company, the sludge went down between 6 and 14 inches throughout the lagoon.

Now that we've had a few accumulating snowfalls, residents are being reminded of the Town of Altona's snow clearing bylaw. The message comes as local police say they continue to field complaints from public works crews trying to clear snow from residential streets. 
    

Altona police are investigating a pair of incidents that took place at two apartment complexes last Wednesday in Plum coulee.
    
According to the Altona Police Service's regular activities report, officers were called to the first building regarding a possible break and enter where extensive damage to a doorknob was reported, but it appeared no one got inside. 
    

'What's the downside of strengthening the Border?'

That's the question Premier Wab Kinew posed to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc during an emergency meeting First Ministers meeting this week to discuss the potential impacts of U.S. president-elect Donald Trump's threat of steep new tariffs. Trump has committed to imposing a 25 per cent tariff on Canadian and Mexican goods brought into the United States unless both countries enhance border security in an effort to curb the flow of drugs and illegal migrants into the U.S.

After 15 years in operation, Friesens Corporation has made the decision to close up its package manufacturing division, think4D.
    
Started in 2009, President and CEO Chad Friesen says think4D was intended to diversify the products offered by the company, noting, at the time, 99 per cent of Friesens business was books and book production.