A new multifunctional wedding venue has opened at the Gilbert Plains Country Club.

“But it’s also going to serve the community as just being open for anyone to rent for whatever they might need or want,” said Easton Hedley, proprietor of The Grounds. “So we will have a ceremony site available. They’re going to be planting a bunch of trees and flowers and making it look very beautiful this spring.”

Hedley said it will take a few years to make the ceremony site feel like a park setting, which is the goal.

“But we’re pretty convinced that the wait will be worth it,” she said.

The community hall, which was built over the last couple of years, will be available for other events, such as retirement or birthday parties or meetings.

“Whatever you may want. We want to book that out and make it as busy as possible,” Hedley said.

Hedley pointed out the hall was originally built to host golf tournaments and golf-related events.

“But it started to take on a life of it’s own. And we took a look at it after it was built. And it was like, ‘how can we share this with more people? How can we generate more revenue that we can put back into the course? How can we use it more effectively’?” she said, adding she had gotten married last summer. “And getting married in the Parkland was quite difficult, because we don’t have any wedding venues. That is, a hall and a ceremony site available,” Hedley said. “And there is also nowhere within an hour that is a wedding venue that is also a golf course. So they thought that this is something that we could bring to people outside of Winnipeg, essentially,” she said.

Planning a wedding can be expensive, as well as time consuming. So The Grounds has partnered with more than 40 local vendors, such as makeup artists, photographers, hoteliers, Air BnBs, DJs and caterers.

“All the things you need to really make your wedding special and to make it go. So they’re offering their services to our couples for a monetary discount. And it’s also going to help our couples who book with us in they’re planning process, because they don’t have to sort everything out on their own,” Hedley said, adding there is no obligation to use their vendors as it is being offered as a service.

Anyone who wishes to make a booking can call Hedley at 204-648-5047 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

There is also an Instagram and Facebook page, both at The Grounds. There is already one confirmed booking for this September and interest in another wedding in 2024.

“So I’m hoping with some of this media, we’re going to be some more bookings and, hopefully, get this thing off the ground, because we really want to share the golf course with people. Gilbert Plains is beautiful and it’s kind of a hidden gem. So we really want to share it and bring people together in the Parkland,” Hedley said.

The ceremony site, located along side the driving range, includes wooden arches, which can be decorated however the couples want.

“There’s a horseshoe area that we’re going to make a little more private with trees and how we’re going to landscape that part. So it’s going to be your own private area close to the parking lot so people have easy access,” Hedley added. “Then you can walk right across the beautiful bridge right into your reception.”

A new brewing company calling Dauphin home will be opening soon.

Obsolete Brewing Co., will operate out of the former Acklands building at 26 2nd Ave. NW.

The idea sprang from the minds of Ryan Vanderheyden, Steven Sobering and Kevin Steinbachs.

“Really, we just talked about it over the course of having beers, really,” said Vanderheyden. “We just talked about how it would be nice if Dauphin had a brewery. And then, at that time, we weren’t thinking about creating one. Then a couple of months down the road, we saw a building available. We went into the building, said, ‘this would be a great place for our brewery,’ and then we started it from there.”

According to Sobering, Vanderheyden is passionate about micro-brewing and beer making in general and already has ties to some micro-breweries in the province.

Sobering has an eye towards tourism and feels a brewery would help attract tourists to the area.

The group found a small batch brewing system and brewed a lot of beer in case they had to brew their product themselves.

“We brewed a lot of beer. It was pretty good. During COVID time, we weren’t able to get together with a lot of people, so we had some small tastings and they went over really well,” Vanderheyden said. “And then we just went through all the steps of finding the right equipment that would fit our size of company that we were going for. And finding everybody to be part of the team that we would need to hire to fit out the building.”

Advertising through the Internet, the group hired Marco Bardelli, a brewer from Brazil, who moved to Dauphin with his wife and two children not long ago.

“He’s replaced us for the brewing, which is probably beneficial to everybody involved. He’s a great brewer that has 12 years of craft brewing experience that will help us out starting up,” Vanderheyden said, adding Bardelli was able to correct some of the things the ownership group was doing. “We didn’t even know what we were doing wrong,” Sobering said.

“Even the equipment fit out, after ordering all our equipment, he did confirm we made the right choices in the size of equipment. But after going through the initial set up, he produced a massive list, like, ‘okay, now you also need this.’ I don’t even think we knew enough to know what we needed. It would have been a real trial and error, whereas now, we can hit the ground running, which is going to be a big benefit.”

The group purchased the lot right next door where Kelleher Ford used to be located and they plan to use that for parking, as well as a patio area, where patrons can sit.

The group, Vanderheyden said, envisions their area of the city as a craft district. The brewery is across the street from a bakery and meat shop, it is within walking distance of the Watson Art Centre and Vermillion Park.

“So people can walk in this area. So we hope we can encourage people to park in our area, come in, have a beer, go shopping at Prairie Supply Co., get some baking goods, a steak for the weekend and they can go home,” he said. “So we’re hoping to create a walking culture in the downtown here, where people can shop and see all the things that we have down here.”

Planning for the brewery began in 2020.

“We incorporated in November 2020,” Vanderheyden said.

Using their small brewing system, Bardelli has already manufactured more than 20 beer recipes. Because it is a small system, the beer does not last because of the tastings the group does.

“I think we have five or six at any given time for tastings. We’ve been touring people through here constantly, just different groups,” Sobering said.

The plan is to have a core line of six to eight different beer recipes, with as many as 20 available for tastings.

“We shifted the business model to be a tourist brewery. We can have a multitude of beers, so that everytime you come here, there will be something new to experience,” Sobering said, adding this will allow them to source local ingredients. There are also plans to produce non-alcoholic beers. “Our brewer makes kombucha, home-made lemonades, gingerale, the list actually goes on,” Vanderheyden said.

“We want the space not to feel like a lounge for people just to come to drink. We want it to be like a family friendly space, so kids can come and get that craft soda. They actually get to experience the new sodas, as well. And their parents can have a beer.”

They also plan to serve coffee.

Currently, the group is waiting for an electrical panel to be constructed. Once they receive that, there will be a bit of a process to get licensed at the provincial level.

“But we do hope to be manufacturing by April or May and maybe a grand opening by June,” Vanderheyden said.

Sobering said the production side of the business will be completed fast, so they can make beer in cans and kegs.

“So we can supply the liquor stores to sell over the counter or kegs in restaurants. But the tasting room will take a little longer, because it’s a different type of occupancy,” he said.

While there will be a learning curve when it comes to distribution, the plan is to provide their product in as many liquor stores as they can, while providing kegs to restaurants.

“And then selling out of the taproom. The best way to get the beer will be to come to the taproom. It will be the freshest. It will be the most variety,” Vanderheyden said.

Short-term there will not be many staff working at the brewery, but as the company grows, so too, will the number of staff needed.

Sobering noted all three partners in the brewery are community-minded.

“We’re all very invested in Dauphin’s prosperity and want to make Dauphin and great place to live. We want to attract some of those visitors, just that little extra step to come to Dauphin,” he said. “If we can sell our beer throughout the province and bring those revenues back here, we can just keep putting it back into the business and back into the community and keep adding more amenities. I think that was one thing all three of us are very committed to.”

Sobering has not heard any negativity around the project, adding people are positive about it.

“People are really excited about it,” he said. “I definitely think it’s going to be a real asset. It might mark a point in time where it’s before-and-after. We kind of want to see ourselves as what we do for Dauphin and this part of the city is what Lakehouse did for Clear Lake when they upgraded. Sometimes it just takes that catalyst, that first step to create that snowball effect. And we’re really hopeful that it’s going to be a hit.”

Following the game, Mar. 3, fans who collected the Dauphin Kings hockey cards had the opportunity to get them autographed by the entire team.

The collectibles were handed out to fans at the game that evening.

The season is over for the Dauphin Clippers hockey team.

The Clippers were swept in their best-of-three Westman High School Hockey League semifinal series by the Swan Valley Tigers.

Swan Valley scored a 2-1 victory in game one, Mar. 7 in Dauphin.

Eli Betcher and Bailey Hunt scored for the Tigers, while Jake Kuzmiak replied for Dauphin.

Owen Martyniuk started in goal for the Tigers and made seven saves before leaving with an injury. Nate Immerkar stopped 33 shots in relief.

Owen Chubka made 28 saves in the loss.

Swan Valley completed the sweep with a 4-1 win in game two, Sunday in Swan River.

Jackson Buchanan gave the Clippers a 1-0 lead after the first period, but that was all the offence they could muster.

Hunt and Tucker Thompson put Swan Valley in front after 40 minutes and Trace Langan and Kash Henkelman scored to seal the win in the third period.

Immerkar made 30 saves for the Tigers, while Chubka finished with 17 saves.

Swan Valley will play the winner of the series between the Neepawa Tigers and Killarney/Wawanesa Raiders. That series is tied 1-1, with game three tonight in Killarney.

In between those games, the Clippers traveled to Winnipeg, Friday, for provincials.

The Clippers came up against the top ranked Garden City Gophers in their opening game, with the Gophers scoring three times in the third period to snap a 2-2 tie and skating to a 5-2 victory.

William Miner and Buchanan had Dauphin’s goals.

The second game of the day, saw the Clippers fall to the fourth-ranked team in the province, the Steinbach Regional Sabres.

Playing their second game in a matter of hours, the Clippers ran out of gas, falling 5-1, with Kuzmiak scoring Dauphin’s lone goal.

Any time you don’t win your final game when you’re in the playoffs, it is a disappointing way to end the season, according to Clippers manager Jason Alf.

“But I can’t fault the guys for the way they played in the last series. They worked hard. I think we were the better team for most of those two games. We just, for whatever reason, we found a bad time to go into a scoring drought,” he said.
As for provincials, Dauphin ran into penalty problems against Garden City, which took advantage, scoring four power-play goals.

“There was quite a few, what I like to call phantom calls in that one. We played them twice and gave up nine goals, seven of which were power plays,” Alf said. “We put all our gas into that one and it left us a little empty.”

That was expected given the quick turn around from their first game. The Clippers gave it their all against the Gophers, then had a brief respite while another game took place, before they hit the ice against Steinbach.

“So not much time to rest. We didn’t have time to go anywhere to eat and Steinbach came in fresh and they looked like a team that was well rested,” Alf said.

Looking back on the season, Alf feels it was a success following a second-place finish in the league standings.

“I don’t think any of us really expected that going into the season to be second place with the five losses and overtime loss and the second lowest goals against, which was another bonus,” he said. “We weren’t sure how the scoring was going to work, because we didn’t have a lot of scoring stars, per se, but we had a lot of hard workers and we spread it around.”

The Clippers will lose about half of their team to graduation, so next season is expected to be a rebuilding year.

“But there’s lots of good players in the area and, as usual, we’ll see what’s coming in the fall. But we hope to be back there in the top eight,” Alf said.

The Dauphin Aspen Insurance U13 Gold team, in action against Rivers, hosted provincials, this past weekend.

After recording a 3-3 tie with Rivers and a 4-1 win over Mitchell in the round-robin, the local hosts were eliminated from the tournament with a 5-4 loss to Rivers.

St. Claude won the gold medal with a 6-0 win over Rat River, while Swan Valley scored a 9-6 win over Rivers to win the bronze medal.

The Dauphin Fusion Credit Union U13 Silver team won bronze at their provincials in St. Adolphe.

After losing their opening game to Morden, 3-2, Dauphin rebounded to beat Stonewall, 5-2.

In the quarterfinals, Dauphin defeated Morden 5-3, then lost to Virden, 8-5 in the semifinals. The bronze medal game saw Dauphin beat Springfield, 7-4.

Emma Jensen won the Dauphin Ladies Bonspiel over the weekend.

Jensen and her team of Lane Prokopowich and Becky Friesen, beat Tiffany Armstrong in the final of the first event, sponsored by Eastside Furniture.

Pam Scott was third and Janelle Lach was fourth.

Theresa Payette won the second event, sponsored by Love and Persson Group. Payette and her team of Kaitlyn Payette, Paige Sahulka and Lisa Sahulka, beat Melissa MacQuarrie in the second event final.

Third place went to Bev Hess and in fourth place was Dawn Steiner.

Norma Johnson and her team of Pearl Maksymetz, Kayla Gillis and Terri Todoruk won the third event, sponsored by Fusion Credit Union. They defeated Kelli Zeiler in the final. Kerri Wieler was third and Leanne Fedak was four

The City and Rural Municipality of Dauphin hosted the annual Firefighters Appreciation Dinner, Mar. 8.

The evening included several presentations, including, from left, Devin Kiesman, Chris Davidson, Jordan Steiner and Mitchell Kanton, who all received their five-year service medal.

Also recognized were Conrad Demeria for 10 years of service, Cameron Popiel and Sabrina Anderson for five years of service.

David Clark was recognized for 34 years of service prior to retiring and will receive his award at a later date.

Also at a later date, Wayne Wells will receive the Manitoba Association of Fire Chiefs Long Service Award, and Alvin Bogoslowski will receive the Governor General’s Exemplary Service Bar for 40 years of service.

Fabien Carriere was also recognized for completing his Level 2 exam prior to resigning from the department.

The Dauphin Clippers advanced to the Westman High School Hockey League semifinals with a two-game sweep over the Glenboro/Carberry/Baldur Wildcats in their best-of-three quarterfinal series.

Tyron Sweetman scored twice to lead Dauphin to a 5-3 win in game one, Feb. 28 in Dauphin.

Jake Kuzmiak, Trayden Guiboche and Braydyn Paskaruk each had a goal and an assist, while Owen Chubka made 23 saves in the victory.

Preston Shearer, Nathan Dyck and Carter Elliott had the Wildcats’ goals and Sawyer Wiebe had 29 saves to his credit.

In game two, Wednesday in Glenboro, Ethan Carnegie scored the winning goal 14 seconds into overtime to lift the Clippers to a 4-3 win and the series sweep.

Logan Chapman scored twice in regulation for Dauphin, with Kuzmiak adding a single.

Chubka had a busier night in game two, making 35 saves.

Griffin Anderson, Trey Dickson and Shearer scored for the Wildcats, while Wiebe made 28 saves.

Clippers manager Jason Alf said the Wildcats came out with a lot of pride after allowing six goals in each of the two games between the two teams in the regular season.

“They wanted to redeem themselves. They’re a very hard working team and we knew they weren’t just going to lay over. Playoffs are a new season, so they came out like we thought they would and gave us a good run,” he said.

Alf feels the team was able to stay disciplined, which was a factor in the series win.

“And we really tried to make an adjustment to the way they came out in game two. They didn’t give us a lot of room to do things and their barn is a little bit smaller than ours, so that made it a little more difficult,” he added. “But we never gave up. We never got down. We had three one-goal leads in that game. And really, we just put the pressure on in overtime and didn’t try to do anything fancy. Just kind of muck around and play that gritty hockey and try and score that way. And that’s what worked.”

The Clippers will now face the Swan Valley Tigers in the best-of-three semifinals, with game one tonight at 7:30 p.m. at Credit Union Place.

Game two will be in Swan River, Sunday at 5:30 p.m. Game three, if necessary, will be back in Dauphin, Mar. 14, at 7:30 p.m.

The other semifinal will see the Killarney/Wawanesa Raiders take on the Neepawa Tigers.

On Friday, the Clippers will be in Winnipeg for the AAAA high school hockey provincials.

Their first game is at 11 a.m., against Garden City, followed by a game at 3 p.m. against Steinbach.

The semifinals will be played Saturday, with the championship, Monday at 6:30 p.m.

Several Parkland minor hockey teams won medals at provincials this past weekend.

The host Grand Plains Hawks won gold at the Female U13 Rural B Provincials in Grandview, Sunday, scoring a 4-0 victory over Stonewall, with every goal coming in the third period.

Connelly McDonald scored twice, while Tori Luhowy and Brookelynn Hess added singles. Hess also had three assists.

The Dauphin U15 Kings won the gold at the U15 Rural A Provincials in Morden, beating Brandon in the final, 3-2.

Landyn Garton scored twice, including the winner with less than two minutes remaining, to lead Dauphin to the win.

Ethan Zalischuk had Dauphin’s other goal.

The U15 Kings also won gold at the U15 Rural C Provincials in Melita.

Zak Fillion scored twice, with Kingston Stirling and Ayden Bradley adding singles. Xander Perih picked up the shutout in goal.

Dauphin brought home a silver medal from the U11A Provincials in Swan River.

The Kings fell in the gold medal game to the host Swan Valley Stampeders, 9-3, with Zayne Guiboche, Jaxon Casavant and Emmett Murray scoring for Dauphin.

Grand Plains won the bronze medal at the Female U11C Provincials in Teulon, beating Neepawa, 4-1. No online game summary was provided.

McCreary scored a 10-2 win over Elm Creek to win the bronze medal at the U11C Provincials in Hartney. No online game summary was provided.

Dauphin hosts the U13 Rural A Provincials, this weekend.