The Swan River Fire Department hosted an open house on Wednesday evening (Oct. 19), inviting all age groups to visit the fire hall as well as the public education trailer, where everyone could learn what to do in the event of a fire.

When you walk through the doors of the newly opened Waywayseecappo FoodMart, it’s likely you’ll have to stop and take in the view for just a second or two....

It’s bright and inviting with large wide aisles and shelves that are big enough to house a huge variety of stock. Right inside the doors, you’re met by a deli serving delicious take out meals prepared in a kitchen that truly is stunning to look at, let alone work in.

If your sweet tooth is calling you, fresh bread, pastries and cookies baked daily also tempt you at the door. Dan Szwaluk, who has managed the Food Mart in Waywayseecappo First Nation for 28 years, said between the planning and a few Covid 19 induced delays, the new retail food store has taken a few years to become a reality. “I really appreciate the patience of Chief and council and all the residents,” he said. “But I do think what we ended up with was worth the wait.”

The goal from the start, he said was to make this new Waywayseecappo Food Mart a destination shopping experience – something like you’d see in the city, Szwaluk said. “And from the comments I’m hearing, I think we may have accocmplished that.” When the new Food Mart officially opens on Tuesday, Oct 27th, it will mark two years to the day that the sod was turned and construction began.

But talks started years before that.

Get the full story in this week's Russell Banner!

A 42-28 win over the Neepawa Tigers, Saturday in Neepawa clinched second place for the Dauphin Clippers football team in the Rural Manitoba Football League standings.

Scott Gower led the offence with 142 yards rushing, which included touchdowns of five, 17 and 30 yards.

Kyle Lunsted had 90 yards rushing on 12 carries.

Kade Glennie scored on a 20-yard interception return and Matt Zurba scored twice on quarterback keepers.

Louis Prevot was a perfect six-for-six in converts.

Joseph Lopez led the defence with eight tackles and one knockdown, while Declan Warrener had one interception.

Clippers manager Cam Bennet said it was one of the Clippers better games of the season.

“Great defence to begin with. Kade Glennie got an interception for a touchdown, I’d say in the first five minutes, which really set the tone,” he said. “And our offence moved the ball extremely well. So that was nice to see, because we’ve struggled a little bit in moving the ball and scoring.”
Gower had an impact on all aspects of the game, Bennet added, and Kyle Lunsted had another great game offensively, as well.

The Clippers improved to 6-1 on the season and finished tied with the Moosomin Generals, which was awarded first place thanks to their win over the Clippers earlier in the season.

So Dauphin will host the 5-2 Interlake Thunder in a semifinal contest, Saturday at 2 p.m.

Interlake led the league with 353 points, while Dauphin had the stingiest defence, allowing just 114 points.

Dauphin won the only meeting between the two teams, 23-20, Sept. 17, in Dauphin.

Bennet, who feels the top five teams are all competitive, expects a tough game.

“We’re going to have to be sharp and we expect them to be sharp, as well. We’re very thankful that we’re playing at home and not of the road. That definitely is an advantage,” he said. “It will be a battle of the juggernauts. We’re looking forward to a big crowd, it will be helpful. And some good weather, too.”

With five wins in their last seven games, the Dauphin Kings are in the middle of the fight for playoff positioning in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League’s West Division.

The Kings could not build on a 3-0 lead first-period lead on Friday in Virden, falling 6-5 in overtime. It was a different story, Saturday in Dauphin as Marko Belak made his Kings debut a successful one, with 21 saves in a 2-1 victory.

As a result, the two teams are tied for second place with 16 points each and trail the first-place OCN Blizzard by seven, while maintaining a two-point advantage over the Waywayseecappo Wolverines and Swan Valley Stampeders.

Kings head coach and general manager Doug Hedley said the Kings were real good in the first period of Friday’s game.

“We outplayed them. We were the better team and had a 3-0 lead. We were driving the net. Two goals were in the paint, so obviously, we were getting to the net. (In the second), we backed off a little bit,” he said. “Give Virden credit. They came at us hard, had some good opportunities and got some lucky bounces.”

The disappointing part of it, Hedley said, was the Kings getting away from the D-side of battles and being above pucks, but they improved that aspect in Saturday’s victory.

Dauphin native Carter Zalischuk had given the Kings a 5-4 lead with 7:32 remaining, his first career goal in the MJHL.

“It should have been locked. We still played as individuals and not as a team. We were still thinking offence when we didn’t need to,” Hedley said. “At that time of the game, it’s got to be locked up. It’s what you leave rather than what you create and we didn’t need more offence, we just had to shut down like we did tonight.”

Both teams played much better defensively, which each team recording just 22 shots.

Hedley was impressed with Belak’s play in his debut.

“He was solid. He’s a big kid and really moves quick. He made great save on the power play in the first period,” he said.

The Kings will look to close the gap on the Blizzard when the two teams faceoff in OCN, tonight.

“That’s going to be a big match. That’s a good team. They’re in first place for a reason. Doug Johnson has them playing real well,” Hedley said.

The Kings have two games on home ice this weekend, beginning Friday against the Neepawa Titans, followed by the first meeting of the season against the Wolverines. Both games begin at 7:30 p.m.

A few players are battling the injury bug.

Defencemen Thomas Stewart is day-to-day with an undisclosed injury, while forward Garrett Hrechka is out with a shoulder injury and Riley Borody is expected back this week after suffering a fractured rib. Defenceman Marco Bodnarski is out with bursitis in his elbow.

Kings court:

Prior to announcing the full rosters for the upcoming Top Prospects Showcase, Nov. 15 and 16 in Portage, the MJHL announced three players from each team who will play at the event. The three players named from the Kings are defencemen Owen Wareham and Anthony Bax and forward Jayden Harris. The event will feature six teams selected from MJHL rosters (two 18U and four 20U) who are considered top prospects for the NHL, NCAA, major junior and U Sports as selected by MJHL coaches along with input from external scouting networks. Each team will partake in a practice and play two full games during this high-performance event in front of scouts from higher levels expected to be in attendance.

Dauphin’s Stephen Roznowsky was the recipient of the Stanley Knowles Solidarity Award at the Manitoba NDP convention, Oct. 14.

The award, Roznowsky explained, is presented through the Manitoba Federation of Labour at each Manitoba NDP convention to a trade unionist who has shown a deep commitment to working people and the achievement of social justice through recognized contributions to the union movement and the Manitoba NDP.

Receiving the award was humbling, he said, because previous recipients were quite involved and high in the structure of organized labour.

“I almost didn’t believe that I was bestowed that, because I didn’t figure that I had that kind of breadth and depth,” Roznowsky said. “But after 53 years of being in public service and 41 of it as an organized labour leader and activist in the Manitoba Government Employees Union.”

Roznowsky has volunteered for many years in different events and organizations, including the Winnipeg Folk Festival, the Dauphin RIDE program and is the local organizer of the annual Terry Fox Run.

For the full story check this week's Dauphin Herald!

This past summer the City of Dauphin reduced the number of lead water service lines in the community thanks to a financial incentive for homeowners.

In June, a $1,000 rebate was made available to homeowners who have lead service lines on their property and who contracted city crews to replace those line.

The incentive was the result of Health Canada allowable lead standards being halved from 10 parts micrograms per billion to five and testing switching from the distribution system to the tap back in 2018.

At the time tests were conducted on 17 homes in Dauphin which had lead service lines - the line connecting the watermain in the street to the residential plumbing system - with 14 of those tests coming back with lead levels higher than the current standards.
In 2018, the city had 445 lead service connections out of 3,500 systemwide. While city officials encouraged homeowners with lead service lines to change them at the time, 420 remained heading into this construction.

“This year alone, we’ve probably replaced 15 to 20 throughout the community, and this incentive helped and we’re aiming for that 10 to 20 a year, just to start to chisel away at this,” director of Public Works and Operations, Mike VanAlstyne said. “We are offering this anywhere in the community where lead has been identified. And if people wonder if they have lead, they can contact us here at the city and we can search their property records.”

While the cost of replacing a service line varies from property to property, the amount is about $3,000.

Under the City’s Water and Sewer Utility System Bylaw, the replacement of lead service lines for property owners is cost-shared. The City pays to replace the line from the water main to the property line and the property owner pays to replace it from the property line to the building.

An incentive which offers around a one-third reduction in costs seems to be making a difference, VanAlstyne said.

“I don’t know if one season is enough to see the success of it, but we’re happy with the way it’s been going with people buying into it,” he said. “We would love to remove all services that carry lead.”

According to a Province of Manitoba fact sheet, although blood levels have fallen significantly in recent decades due to the removal of lead from gasoline and paint, lead remains an important health concern.

The higher and longer the exposure to lead, the greater the effect on health.

Lead exposure has been associated with effects on intellectual development and behaviour of children. Water levels around 0.010 mg/L would be considered a low level lead exposure and may have effects on intellectual development and behaviour of children.

Other health effects, such as cardiovascular effects - increases in blood pressure and reduced kidney function - have also been associated with relatively low levels of lead exposure. High levels of lead exposure have additional health impacts.

Anyone wanting their service changed should contact the city shop at 204-622-3202.

“We can provide them an estimate for the work and put them in the queue if they’re interested,” VanAlstyne said. “Our waterworks crews probably have work until the end of November at this point, doing services with new construction and lead. So I think we’re almost queing into the new year for new people.”

Last week the Lifesaving Society of Manitoba embarked on a Northern and Parkland tour to meet with their partners and stakeholders in the communities to talk about water safety and putting their message out about drowning prevention.
On average, the Lifesaving Society sees around 22 drowning incidents a year on a five-year average in Manitoba and their goal is to get people thinking about water safety and to bring that number down.
“We believe as an organization that one drowning death is one too many and 22 is far too high,” said Lifesaving Society of Manitoba Water Smart and Safety Management Co-ordinator Dr. Christopher Love.
“Drowning is the process of experiencing respiratory impairment due to submersion; it’s not like what is seen in the movies.
“People are generally under the water when drowning initially starts and they spend about 90 percent of the time below the surface when this occurs. They can’t yell for help or make noise and this can happen very fast. This is why we advocate that people need to be very attentive around the water.”
There are a number of ways to prevent drowning incidents from occurring and the biggest factor is supervision.
“We talk about layers of protection when it comes to this subject, so that’s things like learning how to swim and having active adult supervision at all times,” said Love. “This is how we will prevent drowning incidents from happening. The third one is to swim at a lifeguarded facility because statistics show that under 1 percent of drowning incidents happen at guarded facilities.
“The number one thing we see in both our Manitoba and national statistics is that drowning fatalities for children under 12, almost 90 to 100 percent of cases happen when children are alone. As soon as you add an adult to the equation to supervise, that percentage drops to close to zero.
“It may be annoying to some parents or adults, but it’s the one step that needs to happen in order to prevent a tragedy from taking place,” said Love. “Drowning prevention is our mission and we want to make sure people are taking part in a healthy and engaging manner when it comes to being in the water.”
Right now there is a massive lifeguarding shortage across the Province. Many aquatic facilities are struggling to find staff for lifeguarding and teaching swimming lessons in the community. This is a problem also for the Valley.
“Lifeguard shortage is not just a Manitoba issue, it’s across Canada and North America,” said Love. “We’ve had low-level staffing issues for years in the industry because it’s very often not seen as prestigious and the first choice for employment.
“Then with COVID-19, pools were shut down and the vast majority of staff were laid off. These people needed to pay their bills and went on to find other jobs. We’re seeing that these people aren’t coming back to work in this field and are staying in their new careers as a result of this.
“Combine that with the fact that we’ve had two years with very little to no training of new lifeguards, and this all contributes to the shortages we’re seeing,” said Love.
The Lifesaving Society of Manitoba is working hard to address the issue by helping to facilitate more training courses to be held within communities, to train staff to fill the vacancies.
“We’re working as hard as we can with our partners to get courses up and running to train new lifeguards,” said Love. “We’re helping to source people from our office or finding someone who can come to that particular community and offer the training needed.
“People have to realize that it took two years to put things into this situation and we’re not going to get out of it overnight. We don’t want to compromise quality for lifeguards and we want people to still be safe when they come to the pool.”

The Fields of Jubilee (FJ) has been successfully harvested for another year, with 80 acres of wheat bringing in 82 bu/ac and 85 acres of canola bringing in 40 bu/ac. The wheat has been sold for $78,718 and the canola is projected to be $73,000. The FJ committee hopes to be able to donate $125,000 to the Canadian Foodgrains Bank, which works to fight global hunger.

“Oh it feels so good to be back together!” No matter what Beef and Barley event you may have taken in, that was the feeling around town over the Thanksgiving long weekend.

In the more than thirty years since our annual Beef and Barley festival began, the first long weekend of the fall has long been thought of as a ‘regional reunion’ of sorts as students came back from their first month of post secondary studies and families gathered from near and far.

And boy-oh-boy, has the joy of gathering as one great big community, been missed. And to top it off, Mother Nature co-operated beautifully.... “People wise, it was bigger than 2019,” Tyler Kilkenny, one of the long time event organizers said in an informal post festival chat. “The amount of people who showed up this year who I haven’t seen at Beef and Barley functions in the past, was really great to see.”

While the week long event was fantastic, one of the most popular was the Charity Buckin’ Rodeo - followed by the Saturday Night cabaret featuring locally famous In Too Deep on the stage. “When we chose our bull riders to ride for various charities, we focused on age and what age group of people they were going to bring in, what area they were from - so we had two riders from Angusville, two from Inglis and Binscarth and a lot from the RM.

“We really wanted to represent everyone,” Tyler said. Another focal point, the trio explained was to get a really good variety of ages coming out to the rodeo and then staying for a while to take in the cabaret. “And we definitely did that,” Tyler said. “I would say at least 80 percent of the people stayed for the first set of the band and by the time the cabaret ended, I think that more than fifty percent of the people who were still there had been at the rodeo too.”

For more check this week's Russell Banner!

Dauphin’s Breken Brezden travelled to Regina, Oct. 8 and 9, to compete in the Sask Skate 2022 figure skating competition.

Brezden finished first in the short program on Saturday night, then finished first in the free skate program, Sunday, winning overall gold in the Junior Women’s division over the two-day competition.

Brezden then finished third overall at the Ontario Octoberfest 2022 Skate Competition, this past weekend.

She was in fourth place after Saturday’s skate and skated well enough to make it onto the podium on Sunday.