City, Caspian at odds over snow dump

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This article was published 24/11/2016 (3464 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

City, Caspian at odds over snow dump

City hall finds itself embroiled in another dispute with Caspian Construction, this time over the sale of the 13-acre Kenaston Boulevard property used as a snow dump.

Caspian, the subject of an RCMP fraud and forgery investigation over the new downtown police headquarters, was in court Thursday. It secured an injunction against the city to prevent the sale or disposal of the property — surprising, given the city had agreed to sell the site to the construction firm in the summer of 2014 for $5.2 million.

The injunction, which was agreed to by the city, prevents the sale of the property to anyone else until September 2017, when the matter is expected to return to court.

A Caspian spokesman declined to comment while the matter remains before the court.

Province pitches plan to cut court delays

The Manitoba government is hoping to address court delays by creating a new program that taps retired justices of the peace to fill in during vacancies.

Justice Minister Heather Stefanson introduced a proposed legislative amendment Thursday to create a new senior judicial justice of the peace (JJP) program, which enables retired JJPs to put their names forward to serve as a temporary JJP.

Manitoba’s chief judge of the provincial court would have the authority to appoint the JJP to minimize delays in having matters heard while searching for a qualified JJP replacement when there is a vacancy.

The proposed law would create a new administrative JJP position, which would help the chief judge manage and oversee the JJPs in the province.

JJPs have a wide range of legal duties including overseeing contested bail hearings; issuing search warrants; making decisions on applications for protection orders, mental-health orders and youth drug-stabilization orders; conducting vehicle impoundment hearings; and conducting trials and sentencing hearings for offences under the Summary Convictions Act.

City’s water and waste director retires

A former senior civic official has set the record straight on her lengthy, unexplained absence.

Diane Sacher, whose retirement from her post as director of water and waste was announced Thursday, said she had been on a medical leave for the past 21 months.

“I just want to clear up a misconception that’s been going on for awhile,” Sacher told the Free Press.

“I’ve been ill and on medical leave.”

Sacher had been on an unexplained leave of absence since March 2015. Her husband, Brad Sacher, had been the director of public works when he unexpectedly retired in September 2015.

Members of council were informed Thursday that Diane, the director of water and waste, has retired. In an email to council members and department heads, CAO Doug McNeil said she had been with the water and waste department for 32 years. She was appointed director in October 2011.

“Now that I’m retired, I can take my own steps, I don’t have to follow city policy, there’s no constraints on me,” Sacher said. “I was on medical leave, on disability and finally just retired.”

Sacher said her health has improved.

Two 19-year-olds

die in rollover

Two 19-year-old women from Fisher River died Wednesday night in a rollover on Highway 17 near Hodgson.

Hodgson is about 168 kilometres north of Winnipeg.

RCMP said officers responded to the scene at about 8:15 p.m. and found both women dead inside the vehicle. Both were wearing seatbelts.

Police said the investigation showed the women were in a car travelling east on Highway 17, went into the ditch and rolled several times.

Speed is considered to be a contributing factor, but alcohol is not.

seatbelt, phone use

tracked in study

Too many people outside the city aren’t buckling up, a study released Thursday by Manitoba Public Insurance shows.

More than 600 people were seen not wearing seatbelts during an observational driver study conducted in October by Citizens on Patrol Program groups in rural Manitoba.

Participants monitoring 13 rural locations determined an average of 94.7 per cent of vehicle occupants were complying with the province’s mandatory seatbelt law, a decrease of .4 per cent from spring 2016 results. Slightly more than one per cent of drivers were seen using cellphones.

COPP conducts the studies each spring and fall in partnership with RCMP detachments.

A person is 35 times more likely to be killed and five times more likely to be seriously injured when not wearing a seatbelt, MPI said in a statement.

Every year in Manitoba, about 30 per cent of road fatalities involve unbelted vehicle occupants.

— staff