For those who knew him, worked with him or even just lived in Boissevain within the last forty years, the impact of former Mayor Ed Anderson is almost impossible to quantify.
Anderson, who passed away at the age of 81 on December 5, will stand as one of the titans of the community’s history. With a council career that began when many residents were not even born, and several terms as mayor spanning nearly thirty years, Mayor Ed left a stamp on Boissevain that may never again be repeated. One would be hard pressed to find an area of the community he did not touch and did not make better. To say he will be missed is perhaps the greatest understatement to be made after his passing.
The Old Fashioned Community Auction helped Southwest Seniors Housing Inc. inch closer to its $2 million fundraising goal.
Held at the Legion Hall on November 29, the event, which included live, rainbow and silent auctions as well as a pie and bake sale, was the hub of action on the Friday evening. The event was packed and for about three hours, Wright’s Auction Service called for bids, while the participants called back. In the end, everything tallied more than $48,000 for the cause.
“It was just a wonderful evening,” said committee member George Heide as soon as the auction ended. “Everyone had a lot of fun and we were able to raise a lot of money for our project.”
Where the crops of private farmers rightfully took most of the attention during the disaster known as the fall of 2019, a pair of more philanthropic harvests were also stalled, seemingly until the spring of 2020.
For more than 20 years, there has been an annual crop for the Canadian Foodgrains Bank in the area. The Boissevain, Morton, Whitewater Growing Project has been doing seeding and harvest to help the world’s needy every year, most recently on land rented from the Fraser family near Fairfax. This year, the rain and snow put a strain on all producers in the area, making the process of getting crops off onerous and in some cases impossible. What of the growing project?
Hopes are a new addition to the lineup will put a renewed bang into the Boissevain & District Chamber of Commerce’s annual Christmas promotion.
There will be draws for Chamber Bucks and there will be a visit by Santa, as there is every Yuletide season. This year, however, a new idea for Boissevain, but an established one by the sponsor, will be coming – a Christmas Tree Auction.
Sheri Dickinson, who handles memberships and organizes the Christmas promotion for the Chamber, said the concept is the brainchild of Boundary Co-op. They had previously held the event in Deloraine and it worked well. The Co-op has donated 20 trees to Boissevain School, and each class is currently diligently working on decorating them. The idea is for each one to be auctioned off at the Legion Hall on December 5. Dickinson said in Deloraine, they followed themes, with one done as a big Santa Claus.
The Boissevain and Morton Foundation made an important contribution to the community, with a special 2020 on the way.
The Foundation made its disbursements on Thursday evening, November 14 at the Boissevain Curling Club. This year, the total of interest donated through designated and undesignated grants came to $117,265. The designated grants are ones where the donors choose the recipients. Undesignated see the Foundation Board meeting and making decisions from the many applications from worthy community groups. At one time earlier in its history, the breakdown was 75/25% in favour of designated grants. However, this year, the undesignated was at $57,000, while the designated came to $53,600. Executive Director Raylene Conway-Smith said since the special program Endow Manitoba started, it has made more money available for board-directed granting.
Two special memorials to Boissevain’s veterans achieved their goal of connecting school students to their past and the sacrifices of those who went to war.
On Tuesday, November 5, Boissevain School students, staff, school division and municipal officials, Legion members and the public participated in ceremonies at both the cemetery and the cenotaph. It was inspired by the No Stone Left Alone program, which places poppies on the graves of veterans to remember them. Teacher Rylee Woods was an organizer of the local version, and said all went well at both locations.
“Everything went well today, even though the weather was a bit brisk, the sun was shining and I couldn’t have asked for more in that regard!” Woods stated.
With veterans fading into memory, Boissevain School is expanding its involvement in keeping their sacrifices alive with younger generations.
As well as their traditional Remembrance Day ceremony, the school is involved in a larger program, which will see students going to appropriate sites on Tuesday, November 5 to honour those who fought for freedom in World War One, World War Two, Korea and more recent conflicts. One of the organizers, teacher Rylee Woods, said they wanted to grow their services this year.
“We chose to do multiple events this year to reinforce the meaning behind Remembrance Day and to hopefully, increase the learning for the students,” Woods explained.
Every decision is not made and every kink is not worked out, but the assisted living facility is a definite go for the spring of 2020.
Southwest Senior Housing hosted a community meeting on October 20 to update everyone on the progress so far, the next steps and to answer questions about the addition. The group has been working for several years to make the senior home come true and is getting into the final phases.
They had their consultant Gordon Daman on hand for the meeting. Daman has experience in developing a facility siminlar to this in Niverville and has been a great asset to the organization. He went over the project, its amenities and particularities.
The fall has caused problems for everyone involved in agriculture.
Although much of the focus has been on grain, pulse and oilseed harvests, those involved in the various sides of the livestock industry have also been hit hard by the unstopping autumnal rains and the sudden blizzard. Darryl Albrecht of Cherry Creek Cattle Company, located two miles southwest of Boissevain, said the bad weather has impacted everyone.
“Like most farmers, I’m finding it’s not a good situation,” Albrecht explained. “The whole fall has been a stressful situation for everyone.”
Long-time farmer Blaine Mains has seen a lot of harvests, but he feels the fall of 2019 might be one of the most challenging of all.
Late summer and early fall have seen temperature hikes and drops, but mostly a lot of precipitation. This has meant producers have been stalled getting the various crops off. Originally, October was to be a little better, and the first days of the past week were especially beguiling. But the rains came back on Wednesday, with snow coming that night and into the Thanksgiving weekend, with as much as 50 centimeters (20 inches). Producers took advantage of the good days, but continue to be left hanging for the future.
Boissevain has once again returned to the top in Communities in Bloom and are wondering what the future will hold for beautification in the municipality.
On Saturday, September 28 at the Communities in Bloom National/International Symposium in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, Boissevain-Morton was crowned the winner in the Grand Champions category over Castlegar, BC. It was one of many wins for the community, albeit the first for a long while. The impact was immediately felt.
“There’s no words for it,” exclaimed Sandra Burton, who along with husband Frank, represented Boissevain in Yarmouth. “This is it. We did, we’ve done it all! There were all those big communities, and we were one of the little ones. We’re Grand Champions.”
In a story that is getting old very fast, harvest continues to be delayed by endless cycles of precipitation.
In our area, producers have been getting on the fields whenever they can, trying to harvest their crops in when the rains are not coming. Since the fields have been ready, the rains have been falling. This includes last weekend’s dumping.
After a period of less than ideal conditions, on Friday, September 20, thunder and lighting began, with heavy downpours. With only a few stoppages, the rains continued throughout Saturday. Sunday brought sun, but rain continued off and on in the early part of the week.
With planning done and permission complete, HyLife has started the practical work in building its new hog nursery in Boissevain-Morton.
Earlier this month, the company began work on the site, located on the south 1/2 of SE 34-04-WPM, about seven miles north of Boissevain and three miles west of #10 Highway. The plan is for the facility to be a 24,000 head hog nursery (720 animal units). There are to be four barns in total in the project. According to HyLife Senior Director of Corporate Sustainability Sheldon Stott, at present Jim Fluker Construction is the only contractor on site, as they are in the early stages.
Manitoba Infrastructure and Transportation are hoping to have the last phase of the #10 Highway project done before the snow flies.
Work has been progressing on the curves north of Boissevain since spring. Like much of the highway north and south of Boissevain, the existing curves were in rough shape. The Province of Manitoba began planning the project several years ago, at the same time as the other work on the road was being done. As the existing double curve located just north of town did not meet current standards – as a Road Transportation Association of Canada (RTAC) route, a high level of safety was necessary – they decided not to re-work the old road, but to build new curves. This meant working with landowners and designing a new route. The new curves have a wider curve radius, improved elevation, paved shoulders and fewer access points. These will improve safety and bring them up to current standards.
As soon as Mother Nature allows, farmers would like to get back in the fields and combine what looks to be a decent crop.
In a rather odd year, the weather patterns in the area are kicking up another fuss. A dry spring was followed by a fair bit of rain in early summer. It dried out again, but near the end of August, the rains returned. Of course, this is the time for harvest, and rains are not as welcome.
“It’s frustrating for sure,” said Minto area producer and Keystone Agricultural Producers President Bill Campbell. “It’s time to be harvesting. You see the crop out there and you want it in the bin. You want to get at it, but we’re in a bad weather pattern.”
When all is said and done by 2022, Western Archrib in Boissevain will be ready to take on all comers in glulam production.
On August 22, the company announced a major expansion project, to the tune of $3.1 million. This investment will allow the local branch to compete for major jobs across the world in a market that is constantly becoming more competitive.
A special guest at the announcement was Kent Fargey, the president of Western Archrib, based in Edmonton. He went through some of the history of the company in Boissevain, starting with the Dring brothers in the 1940’s and including the purchase of the plant by the present parent in 1987. However, the investment they are making is about the future.
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The exercise in democracy is playing a role in the delay of the local assisted living project.
Originally, the 35-unit facility was to have its groundbreaking by the end of August. However, as is not unusual, there have been a few delays. According to George Heide of the Turtle Mountain Heritage Group that is spearheading the effort, one of these is the dropping of the writ.
“We’ve had a few hook ups in this, a few delays,” Heide explained, “and one of these is the election.”
The government in Manitoba set a new provincial election for September 10. Heide said they were in contact with the government over a few unmentioned items, and as he explained, nothing much happens while an election is in the offing. It has slowed them down a little.
Sometimes agitation towards a goal can bring positive results.
This is the case for the residents on #10 Highway south of Boissevain. Since Manitoba Infrastructure and Transportation completed the resurfacing of the highway in that area two years ago, there have been complaints about the situation on the hill leading out of town. When the work was done, MIT eliminated the passing lane, which allowed traffic speeding up to 100km an hour to bypass slower vehicles. When it was removed it created a hazardous situation for those in the area turning off into their homes, businesses and to the Co-op card lock.
“It was very dangerous,” explained Ivan Strain, whose family has residences and horses on the east side of the highway on the hill. “We could be hauling hay there, turning left and there were cars tramping the gas to get to 100km. I think we were lucky there was not a problem.”
It might not be exactly the same, but the story of an upcoming manufacturing business is similar to an old Remington shaver commercial.
Partners Robert Dyck and Trevor Hicks did not like Findoor so much “they bought the company”, but the revolutionary doors did make enough of an impression that they bought in. Not only that, they will be producing a huge amount of the product in Boissevain in the near future.
As Dyck explained, in 2018 a young salesman from Findoor visited them at Goodon Industries. He had a little trailer with samples of the company’s doors.
If conditions are met, Boissevain-Morton will have a new hog barn
On Thursday, July 4, council gave a unanimous thumbs-ups, with Councillor David Stead not voting due to conflict of interest, to a HyLife hog nursery on the north end of the municipality. However, there are conditions, which the company must sign on to before it becomes official Head of Council Judy Swanson said.
“Economic development is something we have to for sure look at,” Swanson said. “We also have an agreement that was part of the resolution that addresses concerns people had, so we covered our bases.”