Mayor Tina Williams is one year into her four-year mandate as mayor of Virden and she and her team are reckoning with unprecedented structural growth.
This administration has been spared the seemingly constant barrage of natural disasters - floods, tornado warnings, town fires, and highway closures - that Mayor Jeff McConnell dealt with over several terms in office. The immediately previous mayor, Murray Wright andTown's council worked through Covid conditions.
Now, it’s time to deal with change, perhaps more change than this town and region has ever seen within such a short time.
Some projects have been in the works for four years or more, and with new, or expanded funding they’re getting done now. The new council under Williams’ leadership is aware that new challenges accompany these new opportunities.
“Now that we're coming up on October, we've all been elected a year, we had things that were half done last council, and things that we've done, there’s new things we've started and things that we're going to start.”
A lot of money has flowed to Virden in recent years to build critical infrastructure. It was 2015 under Mayor McConnell when a new sewage plant opened the door for community growth. Funding was also made available during that term for the new water source with that project being completed in 2021. No more arsenic worries.
Since then, recent renovations to existing infrastructure include the rebuilding of the bridge on PR 257 over Gopher Creek (announced in 2020) just in time to take traffic in 2023, before the Seventh Avenue North Bridge came under construction.
Virden received Invest in Canada funding of $527,661.90 from the Province of Manitoba and $949,886 from the Federal Government to build the nearly $1.8M bridge.
These town projects unfolded in an orderly sequence that allowed traffic to use the PR 257 route before Manitoba Transportation and Infrastructure repaved King, Seventh and Thomas Drive In the big picture the CAO says the use of the new PR 257 bridge is preventing many years of wear on in-town streets.
King Street, Thomas Drive and Seventh Avenue repaving has smoothed the way for the Virden Committee (derived from the Main Street Boost Report) and the Virden revitalization project to move ahead. HTFC Planning and Design was expected to come to town this past week. It’s about the ambience and amenities that make life in Virden feel orderly and appealing.
Virden has acquired a handful of new features such as the skate park, the spray park and a dog park all in part due to the hard work and fundraising efforts of various volunteer committees.
But that’s not all. Funds have been granted that will provide for curling rink renovations and now a Province of Manitoba Sports, Culture Grant means that Virden’s library is receiving $85,000 for renovations.
Over 80 new daycare spaces have recently been announced. Williams says this will be a huge asset for families wanting to live and work in Virden.
New washrooms are coming with renovations to make Virden’s Victoria Park more accessible, an extension of downtown, just as the Revitalization plan recommended. The Province of Manitoba, Building Sustainable Communities has provided almost $85,000 towards that and a new washroom/change room at the Recreation Grounds
Building Sustainable Communities grants of $75,000 to the skatepark and $200,000 to the spray park helped build these features.
These amenities are part of long-term economic development, says Williams. When people want to live here, it enables businesses and government services to attract and retain employees.
Community building is supported through good medical care. Virden is to become somewhat of a medical hub. A Prairie Mountain Health spokesperson confirms that “Virden Health Centre provides 24/7 emergency department and acute care services for Virden and surrounding areas.” Also, “as part of the recent capital renovation at the Virden Health Centre, a small sleeping / rest area was developed for health professionals who may be at the health centre for an extended period of time.”
The ACC Practical Nursing training program began in 2022. Now, a second intake has opened up for 2024, more good news for health services in the Westman area. Upgrades to the Virden airport have been on Councils’ radar for a number of years. Finally, that project is getting traction, leveraged by a large donation of $2.5 M by Air Andrew. Brock and Scott Andrew have made the donation to help renovations that will bring this airport up to new standards for their new flight school and beyond - for everyone who uses the facility. This upgrade will support the increasing number of medical flights as Virden’s medical facility is upgraded to serve the region better.
Council has the good problem of stewarding these resources. From federal and provincial dollars to private citizen fundraising and donations, it all requires council’s consideration and legislation and the office and field staff to make the programs happen. As Virden's amenities are added, so is the responsibility of day-to-day maintenance, and while the inital installation is paid for, the costs of upkeep will be budget items.
Staff shortages were worrying but there’s good news on that front as well. An economic development professional was hired this past July. Candace Murray is now Economic Development Manager for Virden. She formerly worked in marketing at the Shoppers Mall in Brandon. Murray and husband Shane are already Virden residents.
“We have so many things we're trying to move forward. And staff capacity is important,” says Williams. “Because counselors can have a meeting every night of the week and decide we're going to do a million things. If staff doesn't have time to do it… you need staff to actually make the stuff happen. We (councillors) don't make things happen.”
Virden has just hired an Assistant Chief Administrative Officer. Jared Jaffray is hired for the position. He and his family currently live in Brandon. Jaffray started work this week.
Chief Administrative Officer for Virden, Rhonda Stewart has been looking forward to having an assistant. “We have a lot of bylaws, upgrades, updating that needs to be done. He will maybe take over some of my meetings because we're often in some sort of meeting … two or three nights a week,” says Stewart.
Providing continuity is important. New Public Works foreman, Tyler McFadden can call on the former foreman, Maurice Kernel who is working as a consultant for the town.
Last week, there was commotion in the Town office. “We're moving offices to find places for all our new people (staff) because we don't exactly have extra space down there,” says Williams. But again, finding office space for new staff is a good problem.
Keeping citizens informed was something the council promised to do and an item in the Town’s Strategic Plan. For that reason, the Town is resuming the noon business luncheons with the next one taking place in TOGP on Oct. 19.
“Part of our Strat plan was our communication,” says Williams. “When people ask questions or complain about something, it means they need to hear the council’s reasons and to know what local government is doing about it.”
Williams says that she doesn’t always like the decisions that have to be made. Council is constrained by many things. “There's the municipal act, there's safety things, there's all sorts of things that we have to follow. It's not Whoville.” (Although it will be when we take a break from reality and paint the town Whoville for a Very Virden Christmas.)
Williams continues, “We can't just do everything, and make everybody happy … there's so many things we have to follow. And once you explain that to people,” she says, “people can see a different side of things.”
