Hanover reeve reflects on road work, LUD expansion in 2024

RM of Hanover Reeve Jim Funk said 2024 started off as a good year but by spring a number of road projects had to be done to bring the thoroughfares up to standards.

“For a couple of months they were good then we went into spring and then we ran into some challenges just like any municipality with frost boils and soft roads and we could hardly keep up with graveling the soft spots. So, it was a little bit of an expensive spring due to frost boils and it lingered on so long. We were probably repairing frost boils into July this past spring it was quite long that we had these frost boils.”

A number of capital projects were brought forward to council in 2024. The paving and reconstruction of Central Street North in Mitchell, which was estimated to cost $1.6 million, saw the total reconstruction of the road with building the roadway to a higher elevation, installing subdrains, regrading the ditches, adding land drainage sewers and new culverts and then adding a new asphalt surface.

The project will also include adding a concrete sidewalk along the entire west side of Centre Street and rebuilding all accesses coming onto Centre Street from the side streets.

“Centre Street North was a bit of an issue which came to us from 2023 already, we knew we had to deal with that and we did. It was a costly fix,” said Funk.

Another capital road project was paving Road 34N, or Hanover Road, (two miles south of Mitchell), estimated to cost $625,000.

Funk said three new graders were also purchased to replace aging models.

Other capital projects were the reconstruction of the Blumenort splash pad for $320,000 (coming from reserves); Kleefeld day care set at $4.5 million (mostly from grants) and the purchase of a Zamboni and replacing the chiller for the Mitchell arena ($250,000).

The year also saw the expansion of Blumenort and Grunthal. Blumenort currently has a population of 2,831 people and has expanded its borders southwards by about 20 acres. Grunthal has a population of 2,105 people and has expanded its borders eastward by 98 acres.

“For some it only made sense that we did some of those expansions and tie them into the LUD. It’s easier to service some of them,” said Funk.

Grunthal not only expanded its borders but also released the plans for its arena. The arena will see four new dressing rooms, a new lobby, a new canteen, as well as some electrical system upgrades in order to meet today’s building codes. There will be no changes to the rink other than making the washrooms more accessible. Renovations to the 56-year-old structure will cost between $4 million and $4.5 million and will expand the arena by 9,300 sq.ft. Funding for the arena will be divided between local fundraising, the municipality, and the federal and provincial governments. A special committee was formed in 2024 to fundraise.

“For the RM it is a cost, but for the community and for the people in the community it’s certainly a big thing. The fundraising is going well and I think into the new year you’ll see quite a bit more fundraising. Right now, it looks very positive,” said Funk.

The Red Seine Rat wastewater treatment plant is something that the RM is working on and Funk said the project will go to tender in January.

“We will know more by possibly mid-summer with tenders we’ve chosen and the pricing on what the costs will be and right now we’re speculating. Once we do tenders then that will give us an indication (in price) much closer than what we’re anticipating now.”

The RSR wastewater treatment plant is a project headed by the RMs of Hanover, Tache, La Broquerie, Ritchot, and the Town of Niverville. The cost of the project is estimated to be $190 million.

Looking forward to the new year, Funk said one of the big projects will be “tying up loose ends with the RSR” and work on the Grunthal arena.