Shortly after 3 p.m., Aug. 9, the Dauphin Fire Department was dispatched to assist Ochre River Fire Department with a water rescue on Dauphin Lake.

A boat had overturned sending both occupants into the water.

The mission was a success, with both of the boaters returning to land unharmed.

Thanks is extended to the civilians that assisted in bringing boaters and their boat back to shore.

Dauphin Consumers Co-op is looking into the possibility of starting a Citizens on Patrol Program in Dauphin.

The local business had a table set up at their food store, Wednesday and Thursday, offering information to interested patrons.

Co-op asset protection/safety manager Richard Ives said the first discussion took place in early May.

“And then we heard about all the stuff going on in our community and thought that maybe we could somehow help out as a Co-op. We’re a part of the community and a big part of Dauphin. We thought that maybe this is an avenue that we could take and try and get off the ground,” he said.

Response to the initiative was light on Wednesday, but picked up the next day.

“We’re giving out lots of information today. Hopefully in the weeks to come, we get the applications back and enough interest to start a group in Dauphin. Then we can start up some training and all that,” he said.

Details of what the program will look like have yet to be worked out. Ives said they will have to work with the City of Dauphin and RCMP to determine where support is needed.

“Is it weekends? Evenings? Later mornings? And with a crew of two per vehicle and a few vehicles, hopefully, on the road at those times, just to drive around and be an extra set of eyes for the community of Dauphin,” he said, adding as soon as they have a good number of people willing to take part, they can take the next step to start the program.

About 35 people have expressed an interest in joining the program, which Ives finds encouraging. He adds there is no limit to how many people they will accept into the program.

“I think the more the merrier. It takes less pressure off everybody else and less commitment if there’s a lot more volunteers. But if we have to start small, we’ll start small and go from there,” he said.

Anyone interested in acquiring more information on the program can visit the local Co-op food store administration office and ask for Ives.

It’s always kind of surreal to see someone from your hometown on the big screen in a movie.

Former Roblinite, Matt Mazur, is now living in Vancouver and has been working as an actor and appeared in some pretty notable films and television shows.

“I was always interested film and television, as well as theatre,” said Mazur. “After I graduated high school, I went to Calgary to study theatre along with marketing.

I fell in love with being in theatre and performing.

Did you know that the Citizens on Patrol Program (COPP) exists in Roblin??

It does and is always looking for new volunteers. If you are upset about how things may be changing in Roblin, or just want to help out your community, volunteer for COPP. Roblin is a great community with great people.

Read all about it and more in this week’s RCMP Report.

Results of an Association of Manitoba Municipalities (AMM) member survey shows municipalities are concerned about public safety issues.

According to survey data, 92 per cent of respondents noted that they are concerned about the lack of police presence throughout their communities while 90 per cent believe the province should not be able to replace municipal representatives on police boards with provincial appointees.

In addition, 84 per cent and 77 per cent of respondents noted that property crime and drug crime are likely to occur within their municipal boundaries. As well, 92 per cent of respondents also expressed concern about illicit drug use in their municipality.

“Public safety and crime prevention are top priorities for municipalities,” AMM president Kam Blight said. “Our survey results reaffirm that increased police visibility may help deter crime and make community members feel safer. Municipal officials are very frustrated with the practice of applying a catch-and-release approach to repeat offenders who are contributing to rising rates of crime in local communities. Police officers should be out on the street and in the community, rather than behind a desk filling out repetitive paperwork or waiting to testify in a courtroom.”

The survey was administered in April and 73 responses were received. The AMM was particularly interested in understanding public safety challenges throughout local communities across Manitoba.

The AMM will present the survey’s findings and initial recommendations to the provincial and federal governments while continuing to encourage all orders of government to work together to ensure greater supports are provided to municipalities.

“Moving forward, the AMM will continue to call on the provincial and federal governments to increase support for policing services in order to properly address local public safety priorities and help local governments manage increasing public safety costs,” Blight said.

For more information, a presentation summarizing the survey’s responses can be found at www.amm.mb.ca.

Close to 100 golfers hit the links at the Gilbert Plains Country Club for the annual senior mixed open, Aug. 2.

In the women’s tournament, Pearl Maksymetz’s shot an 87 to give her a one-shot victory over Marilyn Schwitzer, while Lorna Munroe finished third, three back of Maksymetz.

Karen Toderian won the first flight after carding a 118. Pam Hammett was awarded second place on a countback over Donna Campbell after they both finished with a 120.

Darren Graves carded a 75 to win the men’s tournament over runner-up Farron Genaille, who was awarded second on a countback over Kevin Boucher. They each shot a 77.

Don Hudson won the first flight on a countback over runner-up Dean McConnell and third-place finisher Glen Ross after they all finished with an 89.

Countbacks were needed for the second flight, which was won by Doug Cooke, with Murray Kalechyn in second and Darcy Boucher in third. They all shot a 93.

Cal Harrison won the third flight over Reid Birss, both of whom finished with a 95. Tom Monson was third, one shot back.

Jim Demonitgny won the fourth flight over runner-up Don Shumka and Terry Murray. They all scored a 101.

The men’s fifth flight was won by Wayne Manweiller, while John Abrams was second and Curt Pederson was third. They all shot a 108.

Genaille won the closest-to-the-hole contest on nos. 4 and 14, while Jean Sydor won on no. 9. Fred Todoruk and Pam Hammett were the closest-to-the-line winners on no. 5.

The Dauphin Mavericks won their third straight game, Saturday in Brandon, scoring a 26-0 win over the Winnipeg Wasps, to improve their record to 3-4.

Camillus Abatai scored two tries, while Nick Searle and Riley Keith scored one each and Ryan Dreger had three converts. Searle was named Man of the Game for Dauphin.

Dauphin allowed 125 points in their first four games, all losses. In their three wins, the Mavericks have only allowed two tries for 10 points.

When the season started in June, team president Codi Harrigan said the Mavericks were a new team that had never played together.

“We had some new guys and never really knew what we needed to work on or what the other teams would bring to the table,” he said. Once they had a few games under their belts, the Mavericks knew what they had to work on. One of the things that was consistent that we needed to improve on was our defence,” he said. “So we worked on that in practice. Guys showed up to practice consistently. We really improved on our defence and it’s really starting to show. Our scrums, we’re winning those. We’re winning our lineouts. Our defence is really holding teams to a minimum number of points right now. That’s really come to light lately.”

Having players attended practice on a regular basis has really helped the team’s steady improvement on the pitch.

“When guys show up consistently, the more time we get with the ball in our hands, running our systems, it only does good. When we go to a game, it’s like we’re just going to another practice, but with some opposition. It’s definitely helped us,” Harrigan said.

Three players who are new to the sport played their first game on Saturday.

“One guy never played rugby in his life and he picked it up quick,” Harrigan said. “We play a simple system. It’s just straight up rugby and he did great. he enjoyed it.”

Anyone interested in playing rugby with the Mavericks is encouraged to call Harrigan at 204-648-6446.

Dauphin will be home to the Haka Rugby Global Elite Camp, Aug. 18 and 19, at Kin Field at the Vermillion Park Sportsplex.

The camp is open to youth ages seven to 18 and will run from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., each day.

Harrigan said it is a camp which tours around the world. They have already been to Europe, he said, and are now in the United States before heading north of the border.

“It’s a great chance for youth to develop their skills or come try out the sport,” he said.

One of the instructors, Harrigan added, will be a fulltime New Zealand All Blacks rugby player.

There is only 50 spots available, so Harrigan encourages anyone interested in attending the camp to register as soon as possible.

To register, visit www.hakarugbyglobal.nz/camps. The registration fee is $150 and includes a HRG training t-short and shorts.

Swan Valley residents filled the seats set up inside the Swan River Community Centre on Thursday (Aug. 4) for a one-night only visit from Circus Funtastic, a travelling circus company featuring super costumes
and all of the usual circus fun with clowns, high wires, stunts and bags of popcorn to share with the family.

The City of Dauphin will see its lagoon system finally get upgraded and expanded.

The federal and provincial governments announced more than $34.4 million in funding for 10 wastewater and waste management projects in Manitoba, including $9.1 million for the Dauphin project.

Work will include constructing and upgrading a lagoon reactor system, building a new sewage treatment facility, and installing new pipes and will result in increased capacity to treat and manage wastewater and to accommodate population growth.

The announcement was made Monday by Manitoba Labour, Consumer Protection and Government Services Minister Reg Helwer.

The City’s Director of Public Works and Operations Mike VanAlstyne, said the upgrades will allow the city to continue their current operations and improve the quality of the effluent released into Vermillion River once it has been treated.

“The improvements will also allow for a sustained population growth and industrial growth,” he added. “It’s going to be good. It’s going to improve our environmental outputs to the world and to the surrounding areas and lakes and wetlands. By reducing nitrogen and phosphorus levels, you’ll have cleaner waterways that meet environmental conditions.”

Design work is expected to begin this winter, with construction expected to begin in 2024 or 2025.

“It’s a large project that takes some detailed work. We’ll work with the province and the federal government, because the water quality regulations fall with them now. So they’ve output limits to what the water quality should be, so we have to work to meet those.”

After many years of trying to get this project off the ground, Dauphin mayor Christian Laughland said the announcement is huge for the community when to comes to expansion.

“And just overall facility operations, too. It’s really good to see,” he said. “It means a lot just from the expansion side, especially with the fact that the highway on the south side is being updated now, as well. I’m really looking forward to the next, really, five to 10 years in Dauphin. I think it’s going to be a really exciting time to be really open for business and have a lot of different companies, private and public, come to the community and, hopefully, operate out of here.”

Dauphin MLA Brad Michaleski said the federal and provincial governments working together with municipal government was a key to the project coming to fruition.

“The timing is good. We need this type of infrastructure investment for the growth and development of the community and it’s just fantastic that we’re getting this commitment,” he said.

Businesses, Michaleski said, are looking for regions and communities that are developing their infrastructure to attract business.

“It’s a very positive signal from Dauphin to the business world, to the investment world that we’re getting out in front of this, that we’re making the structural investments needed,” he said. “It’s great that the province and federal government are both onside with this.”

The public was invited to visit some of Swan River’s private green spaces during the Garden Walk tour, which serves as a fundraiser for the Swan River Ladies Golf Club.