The new school year is shaping up to be a good one at Roblin Elementary School and Goose Lake High.

With Covid in the rear view mirror – not quite a distant memory yet – and school life returning to pre-Covid normals, there is a real sense of excitement among students and staff.

Read all about it in this week’s Review.

In the next couple of months, some very prominent music award ceremonies are going to be taking place and a local Roblin artist is breaking his own personal record by being nominated for six awards from two different music award ceremonies.

Ryan Keown is nominated for Single of the Year and Music Video of the Year at the 2023 Manitoba Country Music Awards (MCMAs) for his song A Lie I Can Live With. He is also nominated for four awards as Male Vocalist of the Year, Music Video of the Year, Best Video Performance and Modern Song of the Year at the ninth annual Josie Music Awards in Nashville.

Find out more in this week’s paper.

In the afternoon of Aug. 25, Roblin RCMP received a report of theft of bike from a backyard. Two bikes were locked with a rope lock and were stolen.

One was later located being ridden. Person on the bike was arrested for possession of stolen property and charges are pending. Bike was returned to owner.

See what’s kept police busy over the last two weeks in the RCMP Report.

The Pas is leaping into the future and has progressively established installing an EV charger in the community. The EV charger isn’t open for business quite yet, but will be very soon.
“The actual unit arrived during the week of the August 14, and work started then as well,” said Jackie Rechenmacher.
“We still have a couple things to figure out, but once we get it up and running, then the most common thing is to have the users pay a rate for how much power they use. The municipality is looking into other models as well, more to come on that. We will be connecting and testing the unit in the coming weeks.”

The Swan River Centennial Arena saw more action this past weekend (Sept. 1-2), as the Swan Valley Junior A Stampeders opened their Main Camp, welcoming returning players, prospects and invitees to the rink.

Much of the Swan Valley’s crops have been harvested already as weather has permitted area farmers to take their combines out into the field...

Elias Eisenbarth’s goal with one minute remaining lifted Team Hobbs to a 6-5 win over Team Cherepak in the Dauphin Kings’ annual JoFo Cup intrasquad game, Sunday afternoon at Credit Union Place.

Blake Boudreau was named player of the game for Hobbs after he scored twice and added an assist.

Linemate Rylan Gage had a goal and two assists, while Riley Borody and Jordan Bax had the other goals.

Joshua Schmidt was named player of the game for Cherepak with a two-goal effort. Josh Heistad, Sam Boldt and Danylo Dolin also scored.

Austin Siebel and Ethan Fechter combined to make 24 saves in goal for Team Hobbs. Luke Swanson and Piet Mierreau had 30 stops for Team Cherepak.

Coming into camp, Kings head coach and general manager Doug Hedley knew the team would be strong on the backend and in goal.

“We’ve had six guys in here and a couple of young kids that are going to be good in the future. There’s three of our guys that are battling for those spots,” he said, noting veteran Cole Sheffield and rookies Siebel, Swanson, Fechter and Mierreau all had good camps.

Mierreau and Chase Glover will likely play in the opening preseason contests, Tuesday against the Neepawa Titans and Wednesday against the Swan Valley Stampeders.

Both games get underway at 7:30 p.m. at Credit Union Place.

Dauphin will travel to Swan River for the rematch, Friday, at 7 p.m.

Newcomer Naaman Hofer, who was acquired in a trade with the Winnipeg Freeze, last week, was one of the best players in camp all weekend.

“And we really like the pairing with (Karson) Raymond and the (Trey) Gnetz kid that we got from the States, they looked really well. So our backend, we like our mobility, we like our speed and we like our first passes” he said. “And I think there’s some real good potential up front with the speed and the youth that we have.”

Most of the veterans in the intrasquad game were being outplayed by the rookies fighting to make the roster.

“Boudreau has been good all camp. Bouds has separated himself, but I think the rest of our guys, the 17 and 18 year olds have looked really good,” Hedley said, adding he liked the speed and work ethic he saw, as well as the plays that were made. "We showed some really good IQ and some creativity. At this time of year, that’s what we have to do as a coaching staff is get that compete level to the intensity that we want,” he said. “But I do like our speed and the skill sets are really good. There’s something to work with, that’s for sure.”

Tonight’s preseason game with Neepawa will feature the team’s draft picks and list players.

Following Tuesday’s game, the Kings will drop to between 25 and 30 players heading into the remainder of the preseason.

Defenceman Marco Bodnarski and Aidan Murray are out with injuries, so the team will likely carry 10 defencemen and 18 forwards, as well as three goaltenders.

For the remainder of the preseason, Hedley would like to see the work ethic and speed to continue.

“We’re looking to really get some good depth with some size, speed and compete. Hopefully, we can get six lines out of there. Six lines and 10 D and three goaltenders to go into the exhibition (games),” he said.

Kings court:

The Kings will end the preseason with a home game, Sept. 15, against the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League’s Melville Millionaires at 7:30 p.m. at Credit Union Place, followed by a game in Virden the next night against the Oil Capitals. The regular season begins, Sept. 22, with the Stampeders in town for the home opener at 7:30 p.m.

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.”