A significant number of asylum seekers in the U.S. crossing into Canada at Emerson was the big story for the Municipality of Emerson-Franklin in 2017.

"The border-jumper issue was a hot topic for about 4 months," said Greg Janzen, reeve for the RM of Emerson-Franklin. "That directly effected the town of Emerson."

During the summer Janzen had a short chat with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau regarding the issue while they were both in Kenora, Ont. Janzen said he asked for a chance to discuss the issue with either Trudeau himself or Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale.

Janzen also said many projects were underway this summer in the Emerson-Franklin area. A big accomplishment was completing the rural Arnaud water line, which has 50 service connections.

The project had been in the works for about 10 years, and Arnaud was using water under a boil water advisory for about two years.

Other projects included drainage and road work. Janzen noted over 40 miles of drainage work was completed this year.

"We were also approved for a road grant... we got a lot of the work done here before winter, upgrading some gravel roads like the River Road (and) Road 5."

Work on Emerson's new golf course continued this summer as well.

"They did allow some golfing on it towards the middle of the summer, they're working on the club house as we speak," Janzen said.

The RM also started a new tourism group this year.

Wayne Arseny, Tourism Coordinator, spearheaded a project which involved marking 30 kilometres of the Roseau River, and creating a map to go along with it. A large-scale map was erected at the Roseau River Park for the benefit of canoe, kayak and tubing enthusiasts.

"It seemed like this is, in 7 years, it seemed like it was the busiest summer for getting projects started and completed too," Janzen said.

As for challenges that 2017 brought, Janzen would have liked to see more road projects completed.

"It's unfortunate winter come so quick because we still have some road projects," he said. "But I think we got all the roads in good shape finally, dirt roads included."