The week of Monday, Oct. 2 to Friday Oct. 6 is “Break In Your Skates” week at the Roblin Centennial Arena.

This week is designed to give everyone young and old, competitive, or not, an opportunity to break in their skates and get a feel for the ice again before regularly scheduled programs begin.

More in this week’s REConnection.

Kelsey Learning Centre first opened its doors to students in the fall of 1996. The center began as a partnership between UCN (which was Keewatin Community College at the time) and Kelsey School Division. With only two instructors and one of them acting as part-time administrator, one room, and about 25 students, Kelsey Learning Centre fast became the place for adult students to complete their Mature High School diploma. Throughout the 27 years of its existence, KLC has helped 983 adult students receive their Mature Adult Diploma!
KLC is a Manitoba certified Adult Learning and Literacy centre. Adult students with all kinds of literacy and academic needs are welcome. In terms of programming, KLC offers full time day and some evening classes toward a Mature Adult Diploma, academic upgrading for high school, as well as academic upgrading for post-secondary programs.

A long-standing volunteer with The Pas Arts Council has been given a prestigious recognition for her many years of dedication and service. Elaine Bollman received the Governor General’s Sovereign’s Medal for Volunteers last week in a local presentation amongst friends and colleagues.
Bollman was drawn into volunteering for The Pas Arts Council when she went to a meeting to learn more about the organization.
“In 1985, I saw an advertisement in the paper and it said The Pas Arts Council was hosting a meeting,” said Bollman. “I had heard of the group and only lived a block and half away, so I decided to see what they were all about. I thought it was a good way to learn about the organization. I attended the meeting and the group welcomed me in, and by the time I left the meeting, I was the vice-president.”

The tri-community has welcomed another new professional to the area. Johnathan Lalonde has been hired as The Pas Community Development Corporation’s new Economic Development Officer. Lalonde’s educational background and work experience are very much related to the field he will be working in.
“I was born and raised in Saskatchewan, in a community about five hours away from here,” said Lalonde. “I have a BA in Community Economic and Social Development from Algoma University is Sault Ste. Marie, ON.
“For the last three years I’ve worked mostly in the transportation industry, but I’ve been working on a passenger train initiative. All of my work and research for the past three years has been in the transportation industry and helping this non-profit organization to get the passenger train going. It’s the Algoma Central Railway and the passenger train hasn’t been running for eight years now.”

Simon the Scientist made finals for Pow-Wow Pitch by winning the Youth category. Simon will not be pitching at the finals on October 19. Go Simon!

The Swan Valley Stampeders held a barbeque and car wash at Formo Motors LTD. this past Saturday (Sept. 16), where all the proceeds made from the event were split between the team and a local charity.

The citizens of Swan River all gathered on Sunday (Sept. 17), to recognize and support Canadian icon Terry Fox and the legacy of his foundation by taking part in the annual Terry Fox Run to raise money for cancer research. Here, Laurie Evans (left) and Paula Jones (right) make the trek with their dogs.

The Dauphin Clippers JV girls volleyball team won its first tournament of the season, capturing the title at the Elton Sabres JV Invitational, Friday and Saturday.

The Clippers finished second in their pool, opening with a 23-25 and 17-25 loss to the Gilbert Plains Trojans.

Dauphin rebounded to beat the Glenboro Panthers, 25-10 and 25-6, then defeated the Hamiota Huskies, 25-24 and 25-12, before clinching second place with a 25-7 and 25-14 win over the Carberry Cougars.

The Clippers began their march to the tournament title with a 25-18 and 25-16 win over the host Sabres, then defeated the Prairie Mountain Predators, 25-14 and 25-15 in the semifinals.

The final was an all-Parkland affair as the Clippers got a measure of revenge over the Trojans, beating the Gilbert Plains squad, 25-22 and 25-18.

The Trojans’ march to the final began with a 25-14 and 25-7 win over Hamiota in pool play.

After beating Dauphin in the round-robin, Gilbert Plains split with Carberry, 21-25 and 25-13, before beating Glenboro, 25-11 and 25-11, clinching first place in their pool.

In the quarterfinals, the Trojans beat Hamiota, 25-23 and 25-21, and reached the final with a 19-25, 29-27 and 16-14 win over Carberry in the semifinals, setting the stage for the rematch with Dauphin in the final.

Second straight loss on the gridiron

The Dauphin Clippers played well in their second game of the Rural Manitoba Football League season, Saturday, but fell short in a 36-28 loss to the Southwest Sabres in Souris.

Clippers manager Jeff Michasiw said the team played “lights out”, but fell victim to a pair of speedy Southwest players.

“They have a couple of fast players that got the ball outside and were able to beat us on the outside. So they took one back on a touchdown on that,” he said. “And then Souris had two plays where their receivers made juggling catches. Our cornerback was in the right spot. He swatted the ball, but they just made really athletic plays and were able to catch the ball. And they scored on both those plays.”

Despite falling to 0-2 on the young season, the Clippers are continuing to improve with each game, he said.

“We’re seeing improvement with game after game, so we’re not worried about the season yet,” Michasiw said.

Among things the team needs to work on is simple execution of the small things that make a team successful.

“The defence had three or four takeaways. They held them good for most of the game. Souris was, at times, struggling to get any offence going. So it’s just a full 60 minutes that we have to put in,” Michasiw said.

The Clippers will host the Interlake Thunder, Friday at 4:30 p.m.

“I don’t have too much information on how Interlake is playing right now. But the coaches are going to get to work and we’re going to come up with a game plan and hopefully, get our first W at home,” Michasiw said.

Prior to the game, there will be some presentations made to the team.

As the strike by Manitoba Public Insurance (MPI) employees stretches into its third week, the Manitoba Government Employees Union (MGEU) is asking for a conciliator to be brought in to end the job action.

At a news conference last week MGEU president Kyle Ross indicated a conciliator was instrumental in ending the Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries strike last month and he is hopeful the same could be achieved for the 1,700 MPI employees currently on the picket lines.

“The conciliator is just an opportunity to bring in someone to facilitate conversation, and we know at MBLL, once that conversation started, we were able to resolve this very quickly,” Ross said. “We’re hopeful that this will bring up those discussions at the table, and we can get these members a fair offer to vote on and put an end to this strike.”

The main roadblock in the negotiations is wages for workers.

Calling the union’s approach “disappointing”, MPI board chair Ward Keith said the MGEU, from the beginning, has rejected an enhanced four-year collective agreement worth 17 per cent in total monetary value, as well as an offer to avoid strike action by going directly to voluntary arbitration.

The union, he added, is demanding almost double the settlement pattern established across the provincial sector.

“Conciliation is not required to end this strike – that could happen tomorrow without any risk to our employees,” Keith said in a statement. “But we’re still open to exploring conciliation with MGEU if we’re on the same page. Obviously, we won’t resolve the impasse over general wage increases, but a conciliator can help us streamline the arbitration on that issue, and we can discuss other issues to narrow the overall dispute.”

From the union’s perspective, arbitration takes away it members’ “democratic rights” and Ross would rather hammer out a deal at the negotiating table.

“Arbitration is an imposed deal, and we would rather have an opportunity for our members to vote on a deal,” he said.

Striking employees include estimators, adjusters, call centre workers and service centre representatives.

“No one wants the strike to end more than MPI,” Keith said. “We continue to seek the quickest and most responsible approach to resolution, so our dedicated 1,700 employees can return to their important work of delivering services that Manitobans rely on every day.”

Mike VanAlstyne, Dauphin’s director of Public Works and Operations, right, checks out the progress of crews from Maple Leaf Construction as they put new curbs and gutters in place on First Avenue Northeast.

Getting that infrastructure reconstructed is the first step towards a new sidewalk and reopening the street to foot traffic looking to access businesses along the block.

Maple Leaf Construction also ran their curb and gutter machine along reconstructed blocks on Ninth Avenue Southeast, Fourth Avenue Northeast and Aster Bay.