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The City of Dauphin has a new way to control the number of mosquitos in the community.
They partnered with the Communities in Bloom committee and hired two local groups, the DRCSS, and the Hero Club, to build bat houses.
City of Dauphin Assistant CAO, Sharla Griffiths explains how this non-chemical way of controlling bugs works.
“Bat houses are a place that can roost and feel comfortable. Sometimes natural habitat is compromised with development in the area with things like wires or extra tree branches. So by having a bat house, it will promote more bats to live in an area.”
Griffiths explains that these types of houses should be in place before April 1st, so anyone placing them in their yards this year has to wait until next spring for bats to roost.
She also read statistics that bats can eat up to 1000 insects a night.
There are two styles to choose from and cost either $35 or $50 and can be picked up at city hall.
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- Contributed by Josh Sigurdson
Winnipeg Police overtime costs for the Jets Whiteout parties are an astronomical $788,000.
A report stated before the whiteout parties, the overtime budget for the police was under for the year, but now is over.
In the future, the Winnipeg Police Chief has asked for more time in advance to plan for events such as these.
True North Entertainment will be releasing their share of the costs for policing services on Monday.
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It looks like Manitoba isn’t the only province with concerns around ambulance service.
Grant Manz, who lives 40 kilometres west of Yorkton, waited over an hour for an ambulance to show up while he suffered from a severe heart attack last week.
His wife drove to the intersection of Highway 47 and 52 and called the ambulance; only to be told at that time, they didn’t have an ambulance to send out right then.
The bad weather conditions prevented STARS Air Ambulance from being an option.
Manz arrived in Yorkton Hospital only to be transferred to Regina and is now at home recovering.
Dennis Nelson, owner of Yorkton and Area Crestvue Ambulance Services noted they have a busy service and do a lot of transfers.
“There are times we’ve got two and three units driving back and forth to Regina every day.”
Two of the ambulances are funded by the Saskatchewan Health Authority but the other two and the first response unit are not.
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In the spirit of cycling, the Dauphin Derailleurs Cycle Club is hosting a Bike Week in the community.
It starts tomorrow and goes through to next Sunday, June 10.
Melisa Stefaniw, with Tourism Dauphin, talks about how the club has brought this concept to life.
“The Dauphin Derailleurs Cycle Club was started in 2017 with the aim of kind of bringing cycling to the forefront of the community; not just cycling but trails and active transport and our particular focus is going to be bikes. So Dauphin Bike Week was an idea we wanted to bring forward in some of the warmer months in Dauphin and it’s going to be a week of events that are focused on cycling and really how we can embrace cycling in our community.”
To kick off the week there is an online contest starting on Sunday. Post your best bike pics online with the hashtag Dauphin Bike Week for a chance to win a new bike.
Back to work Monday, has people encouraged to ride their bikes to work and post commute pics using the hashtag.
On Tuesday, there will be a bike repair and maintenance workshop and Wednesday will host the Kids of Mud Race in Vermillion Park.
A special viewing of the Dauphin Master Trails Plan will be revealed on Thursday at the Countryfest Community Cinema starting at 9:00.
To end the work week, Friday will be another bike to work day and Saturday will have the Take A Kid Mountain Biking Day at Riding Mountain National Park’s East Gate.
Wrapping up the contest, next Sunday, the winner will be announced for the new bike.
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One bill restricts marijuana from being smoked in all public places such as campsites, sidewalks, and parks.
Also you have to be 19 years of age before being allowed to purchase recreational marijuana.
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Darcy Rowe, 46-years-old from Birch River, made an appearance in Swan River Provincial Court on Wednesday.
Rowe’s charged with Impaired Driving Causing Death and Driving While Over .08 Causing Death from a fatal vehicle/pedestrian collision.
Back in September, on Highway 10, a 35-year-old Shoal River First Nation woman was killed when she got out of a moving truck and was run over by the trailer being towed behind it.
Rowe’s matters were adjourned until Wednesday, June 6.
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A Saskatchewan man was left beaten and bound in his bathtub after he was robbed and cut with a machete on Wednesday evening.
David Alcorn from Rhein, just outside of Yorkton, went to let his dog out when three men forced their way inside.
He tried to escape but they cut his face and hands with a machete, pinned him down and searched his home.
They came across a safe that had $20,000, which Alcorn was saving from his Yorkton business Chronixx Herb and Hemp Shop.
The beating escalated until he opened the safe and gave them the money. They then left him in the bathtub and on their way out stole a shotgun and rifle from his gun cabinet.
After they left, Alcorn was able to get his ankle free and into his truck. He drove to a neighbour’s house and called 911.
RCMP are still investigating the case and no suspects have been arrested yet.
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The legalization of recreational marijuana this summer won’t raise that much tax revenue for the province.
In fact, Heather Stefanson the provincial justice minister says the costs associated with legal weed will be higher than the government takes in.
Costs includes extra police and regulations.
As for the price of legal pot, Stefanson says the province has decided to leave that up to the free market.
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- Contributed by Josh Sigurdson
Health care cuts and spending still remains a hot topic amongst many Manitobans.
One source of spending that’s has been hidden and is now really being questioned, is the cost of agency nursing and locum doctors.
Dr. Jon Gerrard, Liberal MLA and Health Critic, heard this in several communities and brought it up at Question Period.
“I asked Minister Goertzen why so much money was being spent on agency nurses and locum doctors when they should be using people who are trained locally, particularly for nurses. I also included a reference to the fact that when I was in Grandview, I heard of (agency) nurses being given taxi fare all the way from Winnipeg to Grandview in order to come out and fill spots.”
He also heard that they were being paid lucrative amounts for accommodations, mileage and meals.
Gerrard gave a number of what he heard one health region spent in 2016 on agency nurses, locum doctors and overtime staff.
“You know I wasn’t able to get any specific numbers but what I do know is that it’s a considerable amount. I was given a number when I was in Grandview of $7.26 million dollars for the Prairie Mountain Health Region alone. I know from the discussions we had in other communities, particularly northern Manitoba, that there is a very large amount of use of agency nurses and locum doctors.”
Gerrard feels this would have been the first place to cut back on.
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The City of Dauphin passed a resolution to close a local road, pending approval of the RM of Dauphin.
On Monday, some residents and a business asked to have Range Road 144N barricaded and closed to through traffic.
City of Dauphin Assistant CAO, Sharla Griffiths, spoke to us about what council decided to do about the road that connects to the Dauphin bypass.
“The city definitely heard the concerns of the residents and property owners along 144 North. It is council’s opinion that they agree it is not an integral part of the road network, considering there is the bypass just a half mile to the south. Council did pass that resolution where they agreed to barricade the road to through traffic and our administration will be approaching the RM of Dauphin to hopefully get their agreement to do so.”
The final decision on putting a barricade on the road will depend on what the RM of Dauphin decides at their next meeting, which is scheduled for June 12th.
Some of the issues brought forward to city council included an increase in the number of traffic and a large amount of dust disturbing the people who live along the road and Reit-Syd Equipment.
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- Contributed by Josh Sigurdson
Plans to redevelop Gartmore Park are underway from the City of Dauphin.
The City of Dauphin plans to place a statue celebrating the first farmer in the park.
City of Dauphin Assistant CAO, Sharla Griffiths shares some of the redevelopment plans for the park to go along with the city’s next statue.
“We are wanting to revamp that area with some plants that may have been grown by those first farmers 100 plus years ago. So you might see some new plants but they are heritage or older style or things that farmers may have brought with them to plant in their yards.”
Griffiths expects the park to be finished with their redevelopments by this fall when the statue is complete.
The park is at the corner of Main Street S. and 6th Avenue S.W.
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- Contributed by Josh Sigurdson
