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Manitou Beach news By Helen Johnson - The Watrous Manitou October 2, 2006 To subscribe to The Watrous Manitou for a year , please send a cheque for: S0 postal codes - $25.75; all other Canadian - $33.70 U.S. - $100; international - $175 The Watrous Manitou, Box 100, Watrous, SK S0K 4T0 Phone (306) 946-3343 - Fax (306) 946-2026 E-mail: watrous.manitou@sasktel.net John
Kirton, a long-time resident of Manitou Beach passed away Sunday,
September 24 at a health care facility in Strasbourg, Sask. A private
family graveside service was held Friday, Sept. 29.
The village of Manitou Beach has decided to name the stretch of beach in the area between Danceland and the playground "Murray's Beach" in honour of the deceased Vic Murray. Vic was an active member of this community and a valued volunteer in many village and area projects. He also was a prominent entrepreneur involving Danceland and in the building of homes, including the Chalet Condos in the area of Lake Ave. Sunday, Sept. 24, the Murray family was present at the unveiling of a bronze plaque set on a large slab of local stone in the honour of Vic at a visible place officially naming this stretch "Murray's Beach." A description of this event can be found elsewhere in this paper. Later that same evening the Murray family joined about 50 others at the community hall for a barbecue supper sponsored by the Manitou Beach Recreation Board to show their appreciation to the many volunteers that have helped willingly in so many community activities. Pat Weichel, rec. board chairman, listed several of these activities, namely cleanup days, horse-shoe tournaments, manning the food booth during events, pancake breakfasts, winterfest and Land-Lake Relay Day. The volunteers enjoyed the evening and the barbecue complete with baked potatoes, salad etc. To top it off everyone enjoyed cookies and also joyfully licked and slobbered on revels and fudgesicles. (Yummy! I have not had one of those since my grandchildren were youngsters and always raided my freezer.") To finish off this great evening the Communities in Bloom, another volunteer organization, at this time also chose to applaud and recognize the work of the volunteers that did so much of the cleanup work, planting flowers, weeding, watering and the endless job involved in that work. Since there are many residents that can not participate in the public effort of the CIB but do their share to make our village beautiful the CIB decided to have a garden contest with 10 categories and judged by horticulturist Harold Kalynovich of Watrous. Elaine Muzichuk, co-chair of the ad hoc CIB announced the Green Acres gift certificate winners as follows: 1.
yard tidiness - Lionel and Jean Sproule,
2. xeriscape effort - Glen and Marge Larson, 3. unique floral display - Maureen Inverarity and Gary Randall, 4. annual flower garden - Grant and Susan Olm, 5. great garden - Grant and Susan Olm, 6. container gardening - Roy and Nellie Matthews, 7. water feature in yard - Debbie and Gerry Farago, 8. and 9. perennial flower garden and outstanding design and maintenance - Ken and Connie Stephens, 10. theme yard, Karla Barry and Randy Reichert. The evening was a great success and showed that volunteers and cooperation goes a long way to make this village a wonderful place. CIB is very busy again plotting and planning. For example Sue Alcock is busy researching material for a historical map of the beach. She still is in need of some pictures and historical data and if you have some materials that you think might be of interest phone her. Sue is hoping that the map will be of interest to the public and any possible monetary benefits from her project will go to village volunteer organizations. We are also hoping this will be a step in acquiring markers (plaques) for places of historical interest. Burt Crawford has agreed that he will prepare a strip of land on his property behind the Drive-In for a tree nursery to be used by CIB. The CIB volunteers are going to plant and nurture approximately 200 tree seedlings that will eventually be used in landscaping public areas. There are several other projects under discussion. Regular meetings were held twice monthly Mondays but our next meeting will be Friday, Oct. 13. Everyone is invited and welcome to attend these meetings. A community does not consist only of streets, sidewalks, sewer and water lines. The beauty and worth of a community lies in the people that live in it. The above report of what is happening in our midst, is a clear indication we are very fortunate here and have so many who are willing to work for the benefit of all. If you have any news item(s) please give me a phone call (at 1-306-946-2298) or send me an email at h.c.johnson@sasktel.net. By Helen Johnson - The Watrous Manitou September 25, 2006 (portion) It always astonishes me how the weather changes from sunny to cloudy, from hot to cool between the time I write my column and by the time the paper is in the hands of the readers. Our condolences to the family and friends on the recent loss of their husband, father and grandfather Lyle Reichert, a Manitou Beach resident. Congratulations to Clarke Westby, the Gr. 10 student at Watrous Winston High School on his first column for the school. He managed to get our attention and give the reader a feeling of kinship and pride in the teenagers of this community. At least four new construction projects and several major renovations are still going on in the village. Tradesman in the area are kept busy trying to get the work done before winter. Manitou Beach news By Helen Johnson - The Watrous Manitou September 18, 2006 We must have been on our best behaviours to be rewarded with such lovely weather, excellent harvest weather. It is puzzling to hear the different reactions when the weather is discussed. Most will say "beautiful" or "wonderful" but every once in a while someone will respond negatively. "Just wait we will soon pay for it" or "We will soon have minus 30 degrees for six months of the year." First of all, in my opinion, winters never are as bad as many like to portray and secondly, we rarely have very long spells of real cold weather. In my book I love to come in out of the heat into a cool house and I also enjoy the warmth of my home in winter. The regional park campground on the south edge of our village was filled to near capacity the weekend of Sept. 8 to 10 with the gathering of the various Saskatchewan chapters of Good Sam RV Campers. They took over the campgrounds and were very active in holding meetings, socializing and relaxing beside the campfires. Inside the village in the open spaces around Dancelend another RV village sprang up overnight that same weekend with all the polka dancers. Although many attendees stayed at the hotel, motels and B and B places, large numbers came in their campers. With the park being so full, the overflow camped around Dancelend. Friday and Saturday Danceland was full of people, including many who travel to the various polkafests in western Canada and in the northern midwest U.S. Sunday, mainly local people attended the polkafest Mass from this area and the Catholic parishes from this area and from the towns of Watrous and Young. The ladies from local parishes provided a lovely lunch. In the afternoon it was a delight to see parents, grandparents and children enjoying a few hours of dancing. The proceeds of the profits of the Sunday events went to the involved parishes. Our condolences to the families and friends of John Woychesko who passed away Sept. 7. John was a resident of Foam Lake but spend most of his summers at Manitou Beach.. John and his wife Pauline owned and operated the Bay View Apartments at the corner of Elizabeth and Winnipeg for many years. John Kirton, a longtime resident of our village has recently been ill and for the present has moved into the long-term care centre in Strasbourg. Best wishes and hopefully a speedy recovery. Although the warm, sunny days still give us the feeling that we are in the summer holiday season it is actually time for us to be back to work with regular projects. Volunteers who diligently worked on beautifying and cleaning up the village in spring and early summer took a break for the month of August. They held their first fall meeting on Monday, Sept. 11. Most of the meeting was spent summing up our activities this past season, discussing our financial status, and the progress of our fundraising projects at this point. We still have T-shirts for sale; we also have a few oak barrel planters left and also some bundles of campfire wood left. Next spring, volunteers will be active planting flowers in the barrel planters and other flowerbeds in public areas. In other words, there are costs involved even though volunteers do the work. Some time was spent at this meeting planning and tossing out ideas what we could do to further spruce up the village. How did we do in comparison to other communities in the province this year? The judges have made their decisions and we will be notified in early October of the results. It would be nice to receive an award but our aim is not to outdo others but to know that we tried, did our best and have retained our desire to try again next year. Sue Alcock gave a presentation to our group about creating a walking trail in our village. She is in the process of making a historical map for Manitou Beach with the idea of acquiring markers/plaques, plus matching these up with old photographs whenever possible that could be used, both on the map and also on the Manitou Beach Website. In regards to her project, Sue feels that is is important to draw attention to what is still here but she also feels that the plaques should show what is missing and a blurb about a building that is no longer there but was important at one time. Sue would appreciate if people would dig up old pictures of the beach and recall and record some memories. Give Sue a call, she would appreciate it. Manitou Beach Sept. 6 council meeting report:
To subscribe to The Watrous Manitou for a
year , please send a cheque
for:
S0 postal codes - $25.75; all other Canadian - $33.70 U.S. - $100; international - $175 The Watrous Manitou, Box 100, Watrous, SK S0K 4T0 Phone (306) 946-3343 - Fax (306) 946-2026 E-mail: watrous.manitou@sasktel.net |