It was an exciting Monday morning as local dignitaries and volunteers with the Morris and District Handivan cut the ribbon on a new parking garage. The newly constructed building is located at the Town of Morris public works yard west of town.
    
Spokesman, Bill Ginter, said the 26'x30' garage is heated and has room for both of the fleet vehicles operated by the service, which is good considering winter is the horizon.

"...So they won't be iced-up at the beginning of the day and they won't need any long warm-up periods before we pick up our clients. The drivers won't have to get there half-an-hour ahead of time to heat up the vehicles."

And while the final cost of the project hasn't been tallied, Ginter expects the price to ring in around $50,000 but was quick to add that the group had some help in covering the cost. He explained that thanks to a Public Transit Infrastructure Grant, 50 percent of the total is covered by the federal government while the Province of Manitoba chips in 25 percent and the remaining 25 percent is split between the Town of Morris and the R.M. of Morris.

Meantime, Ginter said volunteers with the Morris and District Handi-van keep quite busy running the small van for several hours, seven days a week. He added there is also an organized shopping trip to local stores every Wednesday at 10 a.m. for seniors and those who don't drive. As for the bus, Ginter noted it is used for bigger trips like day trips to Winnipeg that are organized by the local recreation department.

"We think it's a good service and I think it's appreciated by the community," he added.