Residents at Kinsmen Villa had a special visitor last week when a wayward black bear decided to use a tree outside the Sixth Avenue Northwest apartment block for a late morning nap.

It is that time of year when bears are on tour looking for that last bit food to build up fat prior to winter.

And with a river running through the middle of the community, the bears are provided with a perfect highway to embark on their adventures. Sometimes those adventures will bring them into the city and in contact with its residents.

If left alone, the animals will usually continue on their way without causing any problems. In fact, problems with bears are usually created by people.

Here are some tips to help you avoid attracting bears to your property:

• Garbage - eliminate odours. Put garbage in containers that have tight fitting lids, and only put it out on the morning of garbage day, not the night before. If possible, store garbage in bear-resistant containers, or indoors (house, shed, garage). Do not store garbage in plywood boxes, old freezers or vehicles. Put meat scraps in the freezer until garbage day. If you do not have curbside pick up, take your garbage to the dump often. Frequently wash garbage cans and recycle containers and lids with a strong smelling disinfectant.

• Bird and pet food - Fill bird feeders only through the winter months. Do not leave pet food outdoors. Feed pets indoors, not outside or in screened-in areas or porches.

• Fruits, vegetables and compost - Avoid landscaping with trees, shrubs or plants that produce food known to attract bears (some examples include crab apple trees, mountain ash, beech and oak). Do not put meat, fish or sweet food (including fruit) in your composter. Remove vegetables and fallen fruit from the ground. Pick all ripe fruit from trees and bushes.

• Smells - Be aware that cooking odours can attract bears. Remove grease and food residue from barbecue grills, including the grease cup underneath, after each use.

Learn about bears, their needs and behaviour. Share your knowledge with others and encourage your neighbours to practice bear-wise habits.

Users of the Northgate Trail system will notice an addition to the site, courtesy of a Dauphin student.

Anya Jackson attends university in Saskatoon, where she has seen a lot of free libraries, cubicles in which books are stored for anyone to take and read.

“I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time and I haven’t seen any in Dauphin,” she said. “I just thought it would be a nice addition to Dauphin and the community.”

Jackson spoke with some members of the Rotary Club about helping to restock the mini-library.

“Because the first bunch of books are some of my old books, because I’m a big reader. But I thought that once I’m away at school, I can’t always make sure there’s enough books in it. So they’re going to help me restock it with all of the extra books they have,” she said.

Everyone is invited to take a book and return it once they have read it, or take a book and leave one in its place.

“We thought up here at Northgate would be perfect, because a lot of families that come up. There’s people who stay at the cabins. Now with all this space out here with the picnic tables and the fire, we thought that people could take a book, read it, bring it back. Or, if they want to take it home because they’re not done, that’s the point. That’s the purpose,” she said.

Jackson’s father Terry built the mini-library, while Anya designed and painted the outside.

Now that is it up and filled with books, Jackson is excited to see her idea come to fruition.

“It looks great. I’m really excited for people to see it. I think it’s an exciting thing for people to walk by and see something new is here. Hopefully, they’re as excited as I am. So I’m very excited about it,” she said.

Part of the purpose, Jackson said, is to get more people reading.

“I love reading and I know that lots of people do. But it’s nice to bring light to reading. Now we have so much technology, but it’s nice to bring people back to physical books and hopefully this will bring awareness back to reading,” she said.

The need for some form of affordable, accessible public transportation has long been a topic of debate in Dauphin. And that conversation has arisen once again, prompting the Dauphin Neighborhood Renewal Corporation (DNRC) to take action by way of facilitating a stakeholders meeting.

“From a board’s perspective, and a staff perspective, from clients and stakeholders you work with and just some of the work that we do, it came to our attention that the lack of some kind of public transportation was affecting community members,” DNRC board member Phil Fafard said. “So we took it upon ourselves, as part of our mandate, to help initiate and facilitate a process whereby the stakeholders would come together to, first of all hear from the stakeholders, as to whether or not they saw this as an issue.”

The idea was to explore what kinds of transportation services are being provided in the community, whether those were fully addressing the needs and if not, whether people were willing to work towards a community-based, made-in-Dauphin solution.

“We invited as many stakeholders as possible and that included the City, provincial organizations, service providers, private business owners and non-profit organizations to this meeting to hear from them about whether or not is there an issue,” Fafard said, adding there was a concensus among attendees that there is, in fact, a gap in services around transportation in the community.

“It’s affecting community members in terms of their participation in the community or the economy. Even just being able to get around town, whether it’s for child care, for work, shopping.”

In the end, a group of people indicated their to advance the conversation through participation on a steering committee.

“To look at, and do a little research to find out what is available, what isn’t available, what the need is and maybe look at some potential options that Dauphin could pursue as a community,” Fafard said, adding while DNRC initiated the process, it will not lead the process going forward. “I think at the start of the committee work we’ll certainly be involved in terms of help and support. And we may remain involved, but we may not be the lead in terms of where this goes. That will be determined by the committee and who is able to actually pursue a solution.”

Fafard added the process is in its infancy and there may be many options available ranging from public systems, to private businesses to public-private partnerships.

“We’re reaching out to the other communities in Manitoba to find out what they’re doing. That will be part of the research. So it’s really just the start of a process and I don’t know how long it will take, but we’ll see where it goes,” he said. “I think we have a group of people who know that this issue is holding back and affecting community members. And it’s actually holding back the community of Dauphin from an economic development standpoint. We heard that from business owners and non-profits. So it’s an important issue, that has been an issue for a long time and really needs a solution.”

If you thought campaigning had already begun with all three major parties making all those election promises in recent weeks, just wait to see what’s coming down the road.

The official campaign period for Manitoba’s 43rd provincial election begins today (Sept. 3) with Premier Heather Stefanson requesting Lieutenant-Governor Anita Neville to dissolve the legislature and issue the writ of
election.

Find out more in this week’s Review.

A visit to Russell’s Cancer Care unit turns into an opportunity for locals to get involved in providing special gift bags.

The exercise group at the 50 & Over Club are the latest to get involved.

Check out the Review for more.

Manitoba Health is reporting the first confirmed human case of West Nile virus (WNV) in 2023, along with three other probable WNV cases currently under investigation.

The confirmed case is 40 to 49 years of age and lives in the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority.

Read this week’s issue to find out more.

The Skippy L has been a historical part of the community’s history since it was built in 1936. It was built as a riverboat to carry out freight and passengers along the Saskatchewan River. The Skippy L was the longest serving craft of its type and ceased operations in 1977. In 1989, it was designated as a Provincial Heritage Object and put on display in Devon Park.
Since then, the Skippy L has seen better days. Years of neglect have taken its toll and now the Provincial Heritage Object has become an eye sore that is chained up with a fence to keep people out for safety reasons. It’s been the talk of a few town councils, but no decisions have been made in terms of preserving, restoring or demolishing it. It’s a task that the current Town of The Pas Council now faces.

In the summer, many people look forward to different opportunities to dine out, whether it be eating at patio restaurants, drive-ins or food trucks. Now The Pas has another opportunity to get some homestyle cooking from a food truck vendor setting.
“I had been considering opening up a mobile concession booth for some time now and wanted to bring something different to The Pas and area,” said Taste of Home Owner and Operator Ken Johnston Jr. “There have only been a few operations like this in The Pas in the past ten years, and then an opportunity came my way and I was able to purchase this one in Saskatoon.

So far this year there has been a lot of talk about development in northern Manitoba that could creating more shipping and transport opportunities, to job creation and economic development. One of the more recent potential projects that could take place in the northern part of our province is the NeeStaNan Utility Corridor Project, which is Indigenous-led.
The Province of Manitoba has committed to providing $6.7 million over the next two years to study the feasibility of NeeStaNan.
A study by the University of Calgary School of Public Policy has done work on the feasibility and need for a utility corridor. Their work supports that a port and corridor for Liquified Natural Gas (LNG), potash and containers are feasible.

Owning a piece of Swan River’s history can be an amazing and rare find. This is the case for Valley-born Jason Beasley of J-Ride Customs.
Beasley acquired the old milk truck from Crescent Creamery that was used in the Valley to deliver milk and cream to people. It was a treasure he stumbled upon while taking a drive out in the country.
“I have family in the Valley and was actually born in Swan River,” said Beasley. “I was cruising around with my Aunt Nancy Thomas and Uncle Bob Thomas. They have land up in the Pretty Valley area and on the way, I spotted the old Crescent Creamery milk truck just off a gravel road, in a field. It caught my eye and we stopped, because any kind of old vehicle gets my attention right away.
“My uncle stopped and I went and had a look at it. It was in rough shape and there wasn’t even a frame underneath it. It’s a 1954 International Metro Milk Truck and it’s a rare find. My uncle knew who owned the land it was on, so I called them up and I made a deal with the owner. My brother was coming back up to Swan River in a couple of weeks because my grandmother was moving to Winnipeg, so we put all of her stuff in the Metro and put it on a trailer and brought it back.”
Beasley is an avid retro vehicle collector and has dedicated his time to restoring many classic cars, trucks and antique automobiles. Through his business J-Ride Customs, he does all the custom work himself and has a dedicated YouTube channel that has videos of him doing the restoration work for people to see.
Restoring the old 1954 International Metro Milk Truck was challenging for a few reasons. It was in really rough shape; the parts were impossible to find and basically no longer exist.
“I just love old vehicles with all the curve detail they have on the body itself,” said Beasley. “I had to do some research because it was missing so many parts. It looks like someone was just gutting it and using it for parts at one time. There was no frame or motor in it when I bought it.
I had to find out what would fit underneath it the best with the least amount of modifications to it.
“I ended up buying a 2009 Dodge Durango and used that frame for underneath it, including the motor and transmission. Now it’s an all-wheel drive vehicle. I wasn’t able to find any of the old parts for it, so I had to customize and make my own. I had to make my own body panels and everything for it. On my YouTube channel, I have videos of myself making parts for this.
“Sure, it would have been nice to go to somewhere like California to find potential parts for this old milk truck, but you just can’t do that with these types of vehicles because there’s just not a lot of them around,” said Beasley. “You have to make do with what you can.”
It took some time for Beasley to find the right parts that would work with the old Metro milk truck.
He spent a lot of time researching what would work best. Once he had the materials, he began working on it through the winter and on side, amongst other projects and work he had coming into his shop.
“I owned the old Crescent Creamery milk truck for three years before I even did anything with it,” said Beasley. “That’s how much time it took to research and make parts. I work on big projects like this in the winter months. I have a decent size shop and the tools to work on stuff like this. I actually started working on the milk truck last fall to get to where it is now. It’s not totally finished, but did a fair amount of work to it, plus I have three or four other vehicles I was working on at the same time. Plus, I have other vehicles coming in for servicing as well.
“I’m going to bring the milk truck back into the shop for the winter and hopefully finish it. It’s not going to be all pristine; I’m going to leave the original paint and the mural on the side of it. That is all going to stay and where I put the new parts, I’m going to blend the paint to make it look older as well, to match.
“I’m also going to put the seats from the Dodge Durango inside the Metro Milk Truck, so it will have three rows of seating inside,” said Beasley. “I’m also using the dash from the Durango as well, because it’s got this nice woodgrain look to it.”
Restoring the old 1954 Metro milk truck has been a topic of discussion for people of all ages and from everywhere, not just the Valley. Many people remember a time when milk and cream were delivered to their home using milk trucks just like this.
“It’s a real conversation starter that’s for sure,” said Beasley. “A lot of older people remember these types of milk trucks from back in the day. They tell me how they got their milk and cream delivered back then in these trucks. My mom recalls that as well.
“Then I have all these delivery people and Amazon drivers who come here and they are just drooling over this old milk truck. People always ask if they can take pictures and are just blown away by it.”
Beasley has always loved classic automobiles and that led him to learn how to restore them. Some of the restorations he sells, and others stay part of his permanent collection.
“I have certain ones I keep after I’m done restoring them,” said Beasley. “I have a Corvette that I bought when I was 19 years old and a few Novas, Chevelles, cab over pick-up trucks in my collection. I’ve always been car crazy my whole life and I blame it on the band ZZ Top. I’m all self-taught when it comes to the autobody and restoration work.”
Beasley has plans for the 1954 Metro milk truck once it’s finished. It will become part of his permanent collection.
“Once it’s finished, I will keep it because it’s nostalgic to me, and is a part of my history and Swan River’s as well,” said Beasley. “It pulls on my heartstrings a bit. I plan to keep it and potentially take it and put it in car shows. I put a trailer hitch on it so if I want to pull a trailer and my Harley on the back, I can do so. There are a lot of options of things I can do with it now.
“It’s in the plan for me someday to show these restorations in car shows and even down in Arizona. I’ve had lots of people wanting to put old Crescent Creamery milk truck in the parade in Swan River for the rodeo, but it won’t be done for then, but likely next year it will be.”
To see more of Beasley’s restoration work and projects, you can watch videos on his YouTube channel under J-Ride Customs.