COLUMN: Carillon Flashback June 9, 1993 – Five great years for Ag Expo at Morris

The latest in modern technology from satellites to air seeders was the order of the day for Ag Expo ’93 in Morris last week. The fifth edition of the popular agricultural trade show gave farmers the opportunity to compare a wide range of equipment in a “one-stop shopping” atmosphere, as well as get a glimpse of it in operation in field demonstrations.

Ideal weather conditions last Wednesday had hundreds of farmers watching giant air seeders in action, trying their hand at an obstacle course or just browsing through displays at the Big ‘M’ Entertainment Centre and Stampede Grounds.

Ag Expo at Morris has been growing every year and for many exhibitors the annual event involves much more than just showing up with a product to sell.

Rick Manness from Avonlea Farm Sales at Domain gave potential customers a firsthand look at an 11,000-bushel grain bin complete with floor aeration and concrete base.

Sprague assisted living details presented

People who may want to move into a planned assisted living community in Sprague got a detailed look at what life in the 20-room, 14,000-sq-ft facility would be like.

The Timberline Community Housing open house April 25 featured architect Pedro Chagas, who described to the dozens gathered in the Sprague community centre what goes into each room, the shared spaces and more future hopes for the 4.4-acre site.

The plan is to have three trained staff and a manager employed with someone there 18 hours a day, seven days a week. It would be at the entrance to town, across the road from the existing East Borderland Community Housing (ECBH) that has 15 independent living spaces for seniors, and the primary health care centre.

Timberline is not specifically for seniors. But when it opens – there is a plan to open it Jan. 1, 2027 if all the funding falls into place – it would cater to aging adults who can no longer or choose not to live on their own, and who prefer not to move into a personal care home.

New era begins at Hanover Soccer Club

For the first time in over two decades, the Hanover Soccer Club will not be led by Norm Anderson.

Anderson, who helped found the club in the early 2000s, is stepping down from his role as chair of the Hanover Soccer Club board, handing the reigns to Brian Froese.

Froese is a good choice for the role, being involved as a coach, player, volunteer and board member throughout nearly the entire club’s existence, but said he needed to be convinced to sign up, noting he expected to leave the program after his kids stopped playing soccer.

“I felt I sort of did my duty, and walked away and had no intention of ever coming back,” Froese said, laughing.

Cocaine seized on Trans-Canada

RCMP seized 61 kilograms of cocaine from what they called a “sophisticated aftermarket compartment” in the rear of an SUV.

The drugs were found in the vehicle on March 29 at about 7 p.m. in the RM of Reynolds.

Police said a Manitoba RCMP Roving Traffic Unit made the arrest because they had reason to believe the driver of the vehicle, a 29-year-old male from Alberta, was in possession of a controlled substance for the purpose of trafficking.

The cocaine which based on prior arrests would exceed $60 million in value was seized and the driver taken into custody.

Haulers out thousands after sewage tipping fee confusion

Tache became the only area municipality to have different prices for sewage haulers dumping off their load at the Landmark lagoon as of the beginning of this year. That and an email from the RM that did not mention the higher price applied October to the end of May led to confusion that has cost local businesses thousands of dollars, according to owners.

The sewage haulers are also raising a stink after delays in getting their invoices from the RM had the businesses unwittingly undercharging Tache septic tank customers for an extra month.

“Ideally what would be great is the municipality to take those extra charges that we paid out of pocket … that should be erased. It should be moving forward now because you are the ones that didn’t give us the information we needed, therefore we didn’t tack it onto the bill when we provided the service,” said Susan Ste Marie of Moe’s Sewage Service.

The email in question was from an administrative assistant at the RM dated Dec. 13. It was sent to several area septic service companies in the Southeast known to serve Tache residents.

Altomare calls HSD trustees on the carpet

The minister of education is calling for a meeting with Hanover school trustees after a letter to the minister accused the trustees of discriminating behaviour.

Minister Nello Altomare said he will meet with the chair and trustees this week to discuss issues raised in the letter.

“Right now, we just want to have a dialogue with them and find out what they’re up to and how these recent motions and decisions are going to improve student learning and outcomes. That’s what we’re all about here in Manitoba and I want to have a dialogue with them,” said Altomare, noting there have been other complaints about the board to his office.

In the letter to the minister, the Hanover Parent Alliance for Diversity (HPAD) calls for the resignation of board chair Brad Unger and vice-chair Jeff Friesen and trustees Dallas Wiebe, Shayne Barkman, Lynn Barkman, and Cheryl Froese. It also calls for the appointment of an official trustee appointed by the province to oversee board meetings and that an evaluation be conducted on the policies and recent motions approved by the board.

Would you like a smile with that?

Tim Hortons launched their Smile Cookie campaign on April 29. The cookies are sold every year to support a charity of choice. This year, Tim Hortons is supporting Steinbach Youth for Christ. Since 1996, Tim Hortons’ Smile Cookie campaign has raised $111 million for charities across Canada. Last year, Smile Cookie raised a record-breaking $19.7 million, supporting over 600 charities and community groups across Canada and in the United States. Recipients include local hospitals, community care organizations, food banks and schools. The campaing comes to an end on May 5.

COLUMN: Village News – Whence came Mennonites?

Rebecca Kornelson, the grand daughter of Mennonite Heritage Village (MHV) founder John C. Reimer muses about the 150th anniversary of the Mennonites arrival in Manitoba.

Our Steinbach area was first inhabited by the Anishinaabe people for thousands of years. Then Métis occupied a lot of the land. They did a little farming and hunted the bison. In 1871 the Indigenous were moved onto reserves. The Mennonites came to the Dominion of Canada in 1874. We celebrate 150 years this year. These Mennonites came from the Borosenko Colony of Russia, later called Ukraine. The Mennonites were sold land that was swampy and almost uninhabitable.

I am wondering if something was written in the Winnipeg Free Press about the riverboat full of men, women, and children who landed near the forks of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers. The Winnipeg Free Press had only begun publishing news two years earlier.

Did the reporters describe what the people looked like, what curious language they spoke, that they were looking for oxcarts to transport them to a place southeast of Winnipeg where they would settle? Did they wonder what the people believed, why they left Russia, what their hopes and dreams were for this new home? Perhaps one of the Mennonite leaders would tell the Press in broken English that “We cannot direct the winds, but we can adjust our sails”. To the Mennonite group it meant that the politics of Russia were the winds of death, thus the Mennonites were adjusting their sails by moving to a new country with more freedoms to live the way they felt they should.

Steinbach Pistons fall to Winkler Flyers in MJHL finals

In the end, the 2024 Manitoba Junior Hockey League finals will go down as a 4-0 sweep for the Winkler Flyers, but it didn’t feel that way in the moment.

The Flyers needed two overtime wins to complete the sweep over the Steinbach Pistons, including a 5-4 victory in game four in front of a raucous crowd of 1,300 at the Centennial Arena in Winkler April 26. The victory gave Winkler their first MJHL championship since 1998.

“It was a series that wasn’t the best hockey if I’m going to be honest,” Winkler head coach and general manager Justin Falk said after the game.

“It was a bit sloppy, we were a bit nervous knowing the situation we were in. I (would have) liked our execution to be a bit better. But we found a way to be resilient, we found a way to be desperate enough to find a way through each moment.”

Shevchenko pride, magic and sewing create The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Aslan made his own cape for this Thursday and Friday’s production of the C.S. Lewis classic The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe at Shevchenko School.

The 7 p.m. shows are only possible because of the extra efforts made by the Vita school students and their intrepid director Aaron Klassen, who also serves as vice principal, art and ICT teacher.

Grades 6 to 12 students not only star on stage, but are also behind stage and at the soundboard. Art students also created the backdrop.

Klassen explained that being a smaller school, all the effort put in over the last three months has been extracurricular. And the students are all-in.

Eden ends partnership with Steinbach’s Tractor Trek

The tractors will still be rolling out from the Mennonite Heritage Village on June 8, but it will no longer be sanctioned by Eden Foundation.

Earlier this month, the foundation issued a press release saying they had decided to dissolve the partnership with MHV.

Jayme Giesbrecht, director of development for Eden Foundation, described it as a great partnership saying it started well.

The Steinbach Tractor Trek began in 2010, four years after Winkler’s began.