Looking back at 2018

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 31/12/2018 (2684 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Headliner covered a wide variety of events in the RMs of Cartier, Headingley, Macdonald, Rosser and St. Francois Xavier and City of Portage la Prairie in 2017.

A municipal election was held on Oct. 24 with voters in Rosser re-electing reeve Frances Smee and former councillor Rick Van Wyk being elected as reeve in St. Francois Xavier. Mayor John Mauseth and reeves Brad Erb and Dale Fossay were acclaimed in Headingley, Macdonald and Cartier respectively.

Here are some highlights from the past year.

 

Portage hosts curling trials
Portage la Prairie hosted the first ever Canadian Mixed Doubles Olympic Curling Trials at Stride Place from Jan. 2 to 7.

The trials were a success thanks to the 245 people who signed up to volunteer at the event, helping with tasks ranging from checking entry passes to selling 50/50 tickets to helping Curling Canada with time keeping. Co-chairs of the volunteer committee Dean and Dawn Moxham said after the call went out for volunteers a few months ago, all the positions were filled within two days.

The winning team of Kaitlyn Lawes and John Morris went on to win gold at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.

Local non-profits concerned over funding changes
Local organizations voiced concerns over the provincial government’s decision to revamp a longtime funding source.

In late January, the Manitoba Community Services Council was looking for money needed to pay its administration costs beginning in April after recently learning that its provincial funding is cut.

The MCSC operated for 34 years and funded over 10,500 community projects across Manitoba including Jim’s Vintage Garages in Headingley that was recently approved for a $5,000 grant for technology equipment, Macdonald-Headingley Recreation District that was granted $8,000 for a new computer system and furnishings in 2016-17, Portage la Prairie Friendship Centre that received $11,200 for computer equipment and furniture in 2015-16, and Starbuck Recreation Association that was given $2,990 for a furnace replacement in 2014-15.

Sanford Sabres boys win divisional championship
The Sanford Sabres boys’ hockey team celebrated March 8 after soundly beating the Steinbach Sabres 10-3 to win the Winnipeg High School Hockey League’s Winnipeg Free Press Division championship.

The Sabres won the best-of-three series in two straight games, having taken Game 1 3-2 in overtime thanks to a goal by Riley Papp.
The Sabres last won the division championship in 2014.

 

Meridian Arts Festival celebrates 25th anniversary
The Meridian Arts Festival marked 25 years of musical performances from April 14 to 23.
The festival has been a labour of love for co-ordinator Patsy Andrews-Vert. The Starbuck resident first established the festival soon after she moved to the area from Saskatchewan to teach music at schools in Starbuck, Sanford and Elie.

Andrews-Vert said she wanted to give her students a venue for adjudicated performance and help encourage local musicians and vocalists.

The festival includes competition categories for piano, stringed instruments, bands, choral, vocal and speech, but doesn’t include visual arts or dance. Andrews-Vert said competitors range in age from five to 95.

Syrian families making Portage their home
Two Syrian families who arrived in Portage la Prairie in November and December 2016 are settling into their new homes and community.

Sheren and Hasan Bakr and their children, Mohamed, 21, Rana, 16 and Hanaa, 15, came to Portage from Turkey where they’d spent three years after fleeing from their home in Damascus. Iftikar Al Houlani and Kasem Al Hallaq and their children Khaled, 18, Kawthar, 13, and Mohammad, 8, came from Lebanon where they’d lived in a tent for three years after leaving Homs in Syria two years earlier.

The families were brought to Canada through Immigration and Citizenship Canada and with sponsorship by the Portage and Area Refugee Coalition. The coalition, which includes local church members and other residents, worked for about a year to arrange to rent two modest homes, and fully furnish them, in anticipation of the families’ arrivals in Manitoba.

 

La Salle KIDZ Daycare Centre opens
La Salle KIDZ Daycare Centre held its grand opening event on June 9, marking years of effort on the part of a group of La Salle volunteers.

Centre chair, and one of the longtime volunteers, Jenn Penner was facing her own personal daycare dilemma when she started advocating nine years ago for a public daycare centre in La Salle. She and the other volunteers who formed La Salle KIDZ Inc. as a non-profit organization looked for a suitable space for a centre, but it was the construction of the LSCU Complex that brought the break they needed. Once the recreation complex, which shares a parking lot with the daycare centre on PTH 247, opened in February 2014, the community club’s former space became available.

LSCU Complex board secretary Brian Cornelsen said the board and La Salle KIDZ Inc. members formed a partnership that allowed them to successfully obtain provincial government funding for the new centre.

DeLuca’s opens new location in Oak Bluff
When interviewed in late July, Marco De Luca was anticipating the grand opening of DeLuca’s Specialty Foods new location at 66 South Landing in the RM of Macdonald planned for Sat., Aug. 25 and Sun., Aug. 26.

The new 40,000 square-foot building is set in an industrial park adjacent to McGillivray. De Luca said the family purchased the land a few years ago and has taken time to develop the new location.

The new location contains a grocery area with a meat counter, small café, display area for espresso and cappuccino machines and coffee brewing equipment, a coffee Roastery, and space for the company’s wholesale food business and offices.

 

 

SFX left without reeve, CAO
At the July 17 St, Francois Xavier council meeting, chief administrative officer Holly Krysko was dismissed without cause and effective immediately by a vote of three to two. Reeve Dwayne Clark and councillor Matthew Janzen voted against Krysko’s dismissal.

This action, and others taken by the SFX councillors on July 17, made Clark decide to hand in his resignation as reeve on Aug. 3.

“I couldn’t continue on,” he said, on Aug. 8.

Clark said he was completely unaware that councillors Yvonne Wood, Delmer Nott and Rick Van Wyk had been in contact with the municipal council’s lawyer John Stewart to prepare documents required for Krysko’s dismissal.

Portage la Prairie Lions roaring for 80 years
Portage la Prairie Lions Club has lived up to its simple motto “We serve” for 80 years.

Since its incorporation in October 1938, the Lions have provided and supported a wide variety of community services. Records show that the members raised money to buy an ambulance in 1946. Older residents likely swam in another Lions’ project, the Memorial Pool located at Royal Road South and Crescent Drive. Lions Prairie Manor at 24 9th St. SE in Portage bears the club’s name as members donated the seed money to construct the personal care facility in 1976.
While the number of Lions Club members in Portage has dwindled from an all-time high of about 70 to the current 21, member Anita Hart is positive about the club’s future.

“Even though we’re turning 80, we don’t need crutches yet,” Hart joked.

 

Sanford Community Greenspace opens
After four years of grant-writing, holding fundraisers, canvassing local businesses and residents for donations, and even digging holes to plant trees, the Sanford Community Greenspace was officially opened on Oct. 17.

The greenspace is located adjacent to J.A. Cuddy School and offers students and community members a place to play, relax and exercise.

Carolyn Krawitz, who chaired the J.A. Cuddy Greenspace Committee with Sarah Bestland and Christine Kabernick, called the space “a gem in the heart of Sanford”.

She, Bestland and Kabernick spoke at the greenspace’s opening, telling of the project’s progress over the past four years. Kabernick said the idea for the $240,000 project arose in 2014 over concerns about drainage issues affecting the sports field behind the school.

Starbuck Ladies Auxiliary strengthen community
Nov. 28 marked the 50th annual Starbuck Seniors Christmas Dinner held each year on the fourth Wednesday of November. This community tradition draws between 100 and 125 guests unless the weather is very bad.

“We have never cancelled,” said Starview Manor Ladies Auxiliary president Grace Hendrickson.
Those attending get a free turkey dinner with all the trimmings thanks to the efforts of Starbuck United, Catholic and Lutheran and Springstein Mennonite church congregations under the guidance of the Starview Manor Ladies Auxiliary.

Hendrickson, of Starbuck, said the dinner menu and evening program haven’t changed much over the past 50 years. There are prizes of poinsettias and cookies given to each of the youngest and oldest woman and man and longest married couple attending.

 

 

A member of one of Headingley’s founding families dies
David (Dave) Chalmers Taylor died on Oct. 20 at the age of 98, taking a connection to Headingley’s origins with him.

Dave will be remembered by many local residents for his devotion to the community, including his work as caretaker at Phoenix School for 32 years, his volunteer work at Holy Trinity Anglican Church where he served as People’s Warden, and as the first chairman of the Headingley Historical Society. He also served as secretary of the Headingley local of Manitoba Pool Elevators for 20 years, and helped redefine the Headingley Agricultural Society’s property as recreational land, part of which is now occupied by the Headingley Community Centre, baseball diamonds and splash park.

Dave served as an aircraft mechanic with the Royal Canadian Air Force in the Second World War. During his time in the Air Force, he met his wife Ethel and they were married in London, Ont. in 1942.

The Taylor family’s name lives on through Taylor Bridge dedicated in 1997, and the new Taylor Farm development both located on part of the original 1,200 acres first owned by Taylor’s great-grandfather the Hon. John Taylor. John Taylor was elected the MLA for Headingley in 1874 and appointed by the Norquay government as the Minister of Agriculture for Manitoba in 1878.

— Staff