Inter-Mountain Watershed District (IMWD) has developed new Memorial Park and held a ceremony honouring its first two inductees, Ernie Bayduza and Wes Bernat.

IMWD’s new Memorial Park is located in the yardsite of its office near Ethelbert and is intended to honour the volunteers instrumental in founding and building the district into what it is today.

According to IMWD general manager Jeff Thiele, tremendous growth has been accomplished during Bernat’s and Bayduza’s time with the district, and their work constitutes important building blocks for the next generation which will be working and volunteering in conservation.

Bayduza was a long-time councillor, reeve and farmer in the RM of Dauphin. His conservation ethic led him to become a subdistrict member with the Turtle River Watershed Conservation District 1986, and he was integral in the formation of Intermountain Conservation District (IMCD) in 1997. With the new district, Bayduza became chair of the Wilson River subdistrict and served as chair of IMCD between 1999 and 2004. Bayduza remained an active member of the main board of directors until he stepped down in 2011. He continued on as chair of the Wilson River subdistrict until his death in 2019.

During his time on the board, Bayduza also served as chair of the Manitoba Conservation District Association’s board from 2001-03. He received the Conservation Builder Award in 2004 and Bayduza and his wife Alvina were the district’s Conservation Award winners in 2008.

Bayduza also played an important role with the Dauphin Lake Advisory Board and Dauphin Lake Integrated Watershed Management Plan.

“We would like to acknowledge Ernie’s many years of commitment to the district by recognizing him today as a founder and builder of IMWD,” Thiele said.

Bernat grew up and farmed in the RM of Dauphin and also had a long-time career with the City of Dauphin. He was first employed by the City as the Engineering clerk and went on to become the personnel director. Bernat was later elected as a city councillor. He was a member of the IMCD since its establishment in 1997, when he was appointed as the City’s representative on the Vermillion River sub-district.

Bernat was appointed as Chair of the Vermillion River sub district in 2013 and remained an active member of the main board of directors until his passing in 2016.

Bernat participated in many district events such as the annual water festival, conservation district conferences and meetings and was instrumental in the creation of the district’s water retention strategy as well as the implementation and expansion of conservation programming.

Bernat was chair of the Personnel Committee and was instrumental in developing the district’s human resource policies and procedures.

“We would like to acknowledge Wes and his wife Stephanie’s many years of commitment to the district by recognizing him today as a builder of IMWD,” said current chair of IMWD, Jack Bremner. “Both Wes and Ernie were very passionate about conservation and the health of our watershed. It is important for us to recognize their contributions in our new Memorial Park”.

IMWD is in a partnership with the Province of Manitoba and the fmunicipalities of Alonsa, Dauphin (City); Dauphin (R.M), Ethelbert, Gilbert Plains, Grandview, Lakeshore, McCreary, Mossey River, Mountain South, Riding Mountain West, Roblin, Rosedale and Ste. Rose.

These partnerships enable IMWD to deliver a variety of soil, water and educational programs in the area.

IMWD was recently created after the amalgamation of Turtle River Watershed Conservation District and Intermountain Conservation District. Check out its website at imwd.ca for more information.

History was on display at the unveiling of the Airport Memorial 80, honouring the men and women who trained locally as part of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan.

Two five-foot-by-three-foot pieces of granite provides a history of the air training plan, as well as the history of the two air training schools which operated in the area, while the names of those who died during training are displayed on the back of each piece.

The day began with a morning ceremony at Riverside Cemetery, where 15 of the 49 airmen killed in training are buried, and continued with the dedication ceremony at the Lt. Col W.G. (Billy) Barker, VC Airport in the afternoon.

Also on display were three vintage military aircraft used as part of the Plan, a Harvard, a Tiger Moth and a Cornell.

Those interested were able to purchase flights over the community in the historic aircraft.

The memorial was conceptualized and realized through the efforts of local historian Al Gray.

Most of us get pretty excited to get front row seats for our favourite concert or live theatre production. But former Roblinite Jeff Boguski has the best seats in the house when it comes to events like these.

Boguski has been working behind the scenes as a production manager for several music artists and entertainment productions all over the world. Although it wasn’t a career he had in mind when he first ventured out, it definitely became the experience of a lifetime.

Find out who he's toured with in this week's issue.

Hundreds of Manitobans who are waiting for hip or knee replacement surgery will be able to access care more quickly with three new agreements recently signed by the Manitoba government.

The province is partnering with Big Thunder Orthopedic Associates in Thunder Bay, ON; Sanford Health in Fargo, North Dakota; and a clinic in Cleveland, Ohio to help address surgical wait times.

Find out more in this week's Review.

A group of community-minded moms are stepping up to the plate to try and raise funds to upgrade the playgrounds off Newton Bay – known as the Lions Park, and on 2nd Street N.W., aka the Children’s Legacy Park.

There were some discussions last year about forming an actual committee and now it’s on to the next portion of planning and fundraising.

Read all about it in this week's Review.

The Municipality of Roblin’s new recreation manager says she knew the community was struggling a bit in the recreation department.

The on-again, off-again search to find a replacement for long-time manager Trish Boguski hadn’t been going too well and she had been thinking about applying for the job.

Find out more in this week's Review.

During Opaskwayak Indigenous Days (OID), a display was set up in the Otineka Mall with all 50 beaded crowns from OID’s 50th Anniversary. Mother and son duo, Tracy Desjarlais and Cory Constant, beaded the crowns for the anniversary celebration. Desjarlais’ beading talent was recognized locally, after she had designed and beaded a crown for a contestant in one of the pageants.

“I was asked by a friend from Opaskwayak Cree Nation (OCN) to make her little girl a crown because she was in the Angel Princess pageant,” said Desjarlais. “She knew I did bead work and she wanted a crown and moccasins for her daughter who was running as Little Miss Big Eddy. I beaded a crown and moccasins for her, and it wound up being the very first crown I had ever made. I had to figure out a design and how I was going to actually make it.

“From her wearing it around the community that weekend and her mom running the Angel Princess and Little Miss Sweetheart pageants for a while, I was asked to make the crowns for those categories and it went on from there. I believe I started in 2012 when I made my first crown for the Angel Princess, the next year was for the Little Sweetheart Princess, and then I wound up making them for all the pageant categories.”

Get the full story in this week's paper!

If you’re looking for bargains on some really good books to read, then The Pas Regional Library’s second annual book sale is the place to check out. Right now the library is accepting donations of used books and other materials for their sale.

“The library is accepting donations of books for the book sale right up until the day before the event,” said The Pas Regional Library Administrator Caitlin Henderson.

“For the sale we accept any subjects and genres of books, any magazines, DVDs, and even CDs, if people are trying to find somewhere to donate them. The only limitation is any items donated need to be in relatively good condition."

Read all the details in this week's Opasquia Times!

It was official last week with the crowning of the OID Princess, Junior Princess, Little Miss Sweetheart and Angel Princess for 2022. Each and every contestant that ran in this year’s pageants were outstanding in their own ways and possessed qualities that made them all princesses.

Miss Otineka Mall Julia Bignell was crowned OID Princess for 2022. Miss KB Coffee Gigi Blacksmith was crowned OID Junior Princess 2022. Miss Missinnipi Airways Deshawna Whyte Personius was crowned OID Little Miss Sweetheart 2022. Miss Jordan’s Principle Cherish Halcrow Personius was crowned OID Angel Princess.

OID Junior Princess Gigi Blacksmith seized the opportunity to reaffirm why she was the chosen candidate this year by announcing she and her family will be funding an award every year for an OID Princess and Junior Princess candidates, as part of raising awareness for MMIWG2S.

The awards are in memory of Kendara Ballantyne and will be presented by KB Coffee and the Blacksmith family.

Full details in this week's paper!

Two significant murals in The Pas are getting restored with the help of a couple of community organizations. When The Pas Rotary Club President Jim Scott learned that the original artist who painted the murals would be in the community for the summer, he knew the opportunity had perfect timing.

“These murals, especially the two Little John is working on, have become very iconic in the community and a lot of people have had their pictures taken beside or in front of them,” said Scott. “Over time, the weather has taken its toll and the murals have seen better days. It came up that Little John was going to potentially be in The Pas this summer visiting family. I negotiated a price with him to touch up his murals and then our group went about raising the money for it.

“We approached The Pas Destination Marketing Committee and the Rotary Club, and between the two organizations, we were able to come up with the money need to have Little John touch up the murals. These are being restored and repaired for there was a tremendous amount of behind the scenes damage to the one on Edwards Avenue, due to the elements.”

Read the full story in this week's paper!