From The Central Plains Herald May 2 2009

It was with mixed emotions that I read the Central Plains Herald-Leader’s editorial on April 25 (“Time to stop and think”) about the Rural Municipality of Portage public budget meeting. The editor seemed to be attacking the rural council just like the group of people that are opposed to the PCU Centre. At the budget meeting, there were just as many supporters as those opposed, who asked the same questions of the council at this meeting and most other meetings the council held previously. There was no new information brought up which would have given the councillors a reason to vote any differently.

She made a comment that one opposed person thought there should have been money put into the budget for agriculture. It is not the RM’s mandate to put money into government programs the federal and provincial governments provide. They do provide services to the agricultural community by means of fire and police protection, roads, drainage and water service, etc. to rural farms.

She says the RM council is not listening to concerned citizens; I say these concerned citizens needed to have been involved 2 to 2 1/2 years ago when decisions were being made and before binding legal agreements were signed. The bullying tactics and threats of pulling their business from local business owners who have been supporting this project has not helped the situation, but only created animosity within the Portage region. This comment comes only after talking with rural and city business providers.

The councilors’ vote at this meeting means we have a share in this complex. If the opposed group had their way we still would have to pay $8 million to the city, but would then not own any shares or have any say in the operation or usage of this facility.

It is interesting two RM councillors who have at times voted against the funding of the complex, gave a vote in favour of the total financial budget. Wondering if I was alone in how I felt, I talked with many rural citizens and everyone has agreed with my comments.

Talking with Lorne Henry, him and I both feel the PCU Centre cannot be stopped and that all people in the rural municipality should come together and put our differences aside, so we can make sure this complex will be able to be used to the fullest enjoyment of all rural residents. We need to remember that the rural municipality and the city are the larger community, and we both need each other.

Doug Connery

Lorne Henry

From the Daily Graphic

Crescent Lake causeway nearly useless? — I think not!

I am the owner of a fleet of trucks, have my Class 1A licence and have been around trucks and heavy equipment for more than 20 years. I do not think it is useless! We have already travelled across the causeway many times with many various lengths of tractor-trailers. We have no problem getting on and off!

We must remember this is not the Trans-Canada Highway with thousands of trucks crossing everyday; it is temporary. I agree at the south end if you have to turn east or are coming from the east, to cross back you have to make a “S”-type turn, which is not perfect, but it is makeable as we have taken this corner with a lowbed that would be comparable to a 48-foot reefer van.

As for Rick Graham’s comment of taking up the whole street to make a right-hand turn, he must only drive his truck and make left turns. My experience with trucks to make a right-hand turn there are plenty of times when you have to take your tractor to the far lane or across the road to make the turn so you don’t run over the corner. When my driver pulls our longest lowbed, he has to do that every turn! To me that comment is a non-issue and doesn’t hold water.

Over the years, we have built many approaches/crossing for our trucks for various job sites and we have learned the wider you make it the shorter they will turn, and then they end up dragging the trailer tires over the edge anyways! Again, the turns are very makeable for most trucks.

Tired of “all” the negativity in this city,

Mark Moon

Portage la Prairie

From the Daily Graphic

Trucks still using bridge because of problems

The temporary causeway built by the City of Portage la Prairie to allow heavy traffic to cross Crescent Lake is poorly designed and nearly unusable, according to some truck drivers.

The problem, they say, is the turn on and off of the causeway is too tight for most trucks to safely make.

“It’s pretty near impossible with a semi,” explained Rick Graham, a truck driver and owner of RTG trucking in Fortier. “I pull a 48-foot reefer, and when you turn off to go on to the causeway from Tupper Street, you have to take the whole street, so you’re going into oncoming traffic to make that corner.”

Graham said negotiating the south end of the causeway is just as difficult as getting onto it.

“When you come off of it on the island, you’ve got to make that left hand corner and your trailer wheels just barely clear it — and that’s with a 48-footer, the 53-footer would be even worse.”

Graham said he only uses the causeway when he is carrying a load, other than that he continues to use the bridge.

The one-lane temporary causeway, which cost nearly $270,000 to build, was completed in early July, and was meant to relieve the old bridge of heavy loads weighing over 13.6 tonnes.

One semi driver who drives across the new causeway every day transporting produce grown on the island to Winnipeg, said he feels the city wasted their money on the project.

From the Daily Graphic

Rich with history, tradition, and mythology, the Portagex Raceway is soon to be no more.

Traditionally slated as the final stop on the Manitoba Great Western Harness Racing Circuit, preliminary construction for the PCU Centre Multiplex has robbed Portage la Prairie race fans of a chance to say goodbye, as the year-end race, scheduled for Saturday and Sunday at the track has been moved to Miami.

The loss of the track, renowned throughout Manitoba for its speed and durability, is lamentable for all involved in the sport.

“It was the best track to be at,” said race horse owner, trainer, rider and St. Claude resident Dean Rey. “It was the best track to ride a horse on and give it a future somewhere else. There was a lot of fast miles out of that track.”

Rey’s fondest memory of the half-mile oval, was tying the track record of 1:57.30 set by Jacob Goertzen’s True Tyrant back in 1991, while piloting his horse Mid Summer Hardball. That record still stands as the fastest mile in Manitoba history.

For others, the most vivid memories were of sitting in the grandstands on a hot summer afternoon.

“Ian MacKenzie, the former mayor, was the race caller for the circuit and that’s one thing I’ll always remember,” said former MGWHRC president Murray Jackson. “He had a tremendous voice and could always do a good job of calling the races. His voice seemed to echo in those grandstands, it really added to the excitement.”

From the Daily Graphic

The Portage Credit Union Centre now officially has a home.

At a special meeting held at city hall this morning, city councillors voted unanimously in favour of entering into a 99-year lease agreement with the Rural Municipality of Portage and the Portage Industrial Exhibition Association (PIEA) to build the new multiplex on approximately 8.5 hectares of land at the fairgrounds on Island Park.

“This is a big step, and it’s the right step,” said Mayor Ken Brennan after the meeting. “We really feel good about this lease signing, it’s just another step that we have to take to get this multiplex built … I’m really pleased for the community.”

Following the vote by council Paul Trimble, president of the PIEA, Reeve Toby Trimble of the RM and Brennan signed the agreements and made the deal official.

Under the agreement the city and RM will pay the PIEA $20,000 plus an annual increase equal to Manitoba Price Index for the term of the lease.

From The Portage Daily Graphic

Despite opposition, councillors with the Rural Municipality of Portage la Prairie have voted to approve the final draft of a 99-year lease agreement with the Portage Industrial Exhibition Association (PIEA).

The fairgrounds land, about 8.5 hectares in total, will be the site of the new Portage Credit Union Centre.

About 15 concerned citizens came out for the vote, including Portage MLA David Faurschou, who made a presentation to council about the different departments of the provincial and federal government that would have to be contacted before a permanent causeway could be built across Crescent lake.

Faurschou said he was asked to look into the matter by his constituents.

“What was a concern, and what I was asked to (report) to council was effectively the provincial permitting that would be required to provide access to the properties in which the RM was entering into a lease agreement,” said the MLA after the vote. “There are three departments of government that must rule on the construction of an access to the leased properties, and in addition to that, there are two departments of the federal government that are required to provide licensing as well.”

According to Faurschou, before the permanent causeway can be built, a licence would be needed from Manitoba Water Stewardship, Manitoba Infrastructure and Transportation and Manitoba Conservation, as well as Navigation Canada and the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

Although the MLA couldn’t say how long it would take to get approval from the different government departments, he did say getting one licence through his government usually takes three to four months, as long as there is no opposition at public meetings.

Reeve Toby Trimble said the concerns brought up by Faurschou were not a concern of the RM because it’s the city that will be building the new causeway, which isn’t expected to happen for at least five years.

“The access is provided now, so it’s not part of the multiplex,” he said.

Patricia Hoyes, a concerned RM ratepayer, also addressed council with her concerns. She doesn’t feel the municipality is being straight forward and honest with constituents about what the project will cost to build and maintain.

Posted From the Portage Daily Graphic Thursday July 31st

A group of ratepayers from the Rural Municipality of Portage la Prairie are taking their concerns over the RM’s funding of the proposed PCU Centre to court.

On Tuesday morning, a group of roughly 70 residents met with Grant Driedger, a legal representative with Smith Neufeld Jodoin Law Offices in Carman, to discuss their legal options.

“There’s a group of ratepayers from pretty much across the RM, who have significant concerns with the borrowing and the amount of funding that the RM is proposing to put into the multiplex,” explained Driedger after the meeting. “The concerns are both that it’s being done and also how it’s been done.

“At this point, we will be proceeding to bring a court application to get the court to take a look at how this has happened, and whether the RM has done what they needed to do.”

He said the main argument his firm will make in the application is that a new borrowing bylaw should be required from the RM because of the changes made in the multiplex’s plans.

“Initially, the proposal was two arenas, a competitive pool and various other things,” explained the lawyer. “When the cost figures came in higher than they initially expected, they had to scale that down considerably.

“So the bylaw that they’re relying on to authorize them borrowing money to

fund the project was based on Plan A, and now they’re going ahead with Plan

B, so they’re borrowing the same amount of money, but getting a significantly lesser facility.”

Posted from the Portage Daily Graphic Friday August 1st

Lowering the estimated costs associated with building the PCU Centre in Portage to an affordable level was not free for the City and Rural Municipality of Portage la Prairie.

The city will pay Stantec Architectural Ltd. an extra $215,135 plus tax for the work the company did redesigning the complex, after the initial costs came in over budget.

At a special council meeting held at city hall on Thursday, councillors voted in favour of the payment.

“When we had to reconfigure some of the components of the multiplex, they had to go back to the drawing board and do a lot of redesign,” explained Mayor Ken Brennan. “So this is the bill for our request for a redesign.”

When the original plans came in at a cost of nearly $42 million, Stantec scaled back the plans by removing the competitive pool and phasing in the second arena originally included in the plans for the project.

Brennan explained the additional costs of the redesign have already been included in the current estimate of $35.7 million needed to build the revised PCU Centre project.

The city’s approval of the payment is conditional on whether the additional design fee is approved by the RM of Portage, which has agreed to reimburse the city for one-third of the design costs for the project.

The RM will vote on the additional fee at its next council meeting scheduled for Aug. 5.

Posted from the Daily Graphic July 9 2008

In what is becoming a regular occurrence at Rural Municipality of Portage la Prairie council meetings, a group of concerned ratepayers filled the gallery at the July 8 meeting to show their disapproval of council’s decision to help fund the PCU Centre in Portage.

Abe Peters, an Oakville-area farmer, was one of three delegates who spoke in front of council on behalf of the roughly 15 residents who attended the meeting.

Peters told council he has many concerns with how the RM is taxing residents to pay for the up to $8 million the RM has promised to contribute to the project, and is upset with what he called inadequate answers the RM is giving residents about how the RM will pay for operating costs once the structure is built.

At a public meeting on May 15, held to discuss plans for the multiplex, the annual operating costs for the complex were said to be as much as $1.2 million.

Following the meeting, Reeve Toby Trimble said some of the operating costs will be recovered by fees collected from users of the complex, and the rest will be paid for by the RM and the City of Portage. Trimble added money the RM receives from a tax -sharing agreement with the city will likely be used to pay the costs.

“We’ll have the ability to direct a portion of the money we receive from the tax-sharing agreement toward the operating budget of the multiplex,” explained the reeve.