The Municipality of Rhineland has a new councillor. Brad Braun was acclaimed to the post after Benno Loewen stepped down due to health reasons.
    
Reeve Don Wiebe says Braun lives in Gnadenfeld with his wife Karen and many might know him from his years at Green Valley Equipment. He adds Braun also has community experience through volunteering as a hockey coach, serving on a church board and worked for several years with the Neubergthal Heritage Foundation.

"According to Brad he's always had a bit of an interest in political affairs and political events, when the opportunity presented itself he stepped forward and we as a Council are very pleased to have him on board."

Meantime, Wiebe says there's some good news regarding the Plum Coulee Arena and Community Hall reconstruction project.

"We had a show-and-tell meeting in February, we had the architects present as well, and so this gave people the opportunity to look at these plans and make some specific suggestions. The architects noted some of those suggestions and we're working towards maybe making further improvements."

Nonetheless, Wiebe explains he attended the first project construction meeting this past week and is pleased to announce that work will get underway ASAP

He also thanks the Plum Coulee Public Works staff for building and maintaining an outdoor skating rink in the community this past winter.

And as the spring thaw begins to set in, flood concerns are top of mind for those in the Municipality. Wiebe says local officials are trying to make preparations.

"One of the things our Council is trying to be very aware of what's happening in the province and what the trends are. Our EMO committee is meeting next week...to make sure that we are prepared and we can anticipate as much as we can what could be coming."

The province is set to release an updated flood forecast in the next week or so.