Weather was one of the big stories to impact Rhineland Municipality in 2016.

Reeve Don Wiebe, in a yearend interview, called it an unusual year which started with drought-like conditions in May followed by extremely wet conditions in late spring and summer.

"There was a tremendous amount of crop damage in various parts of the municipality and there was flooding in some of the villages like Rosetown and Neuhorst," said Wiebe. "This taxed our municipal drains to the limit and made it very difficult to keep up with drainage requests. These heavy rains also promote the growth of bull rushes which made it very complicated in terms of keeping the drains working as effectively as possible."

As a result, Rhineland council decided to hire a hydrologist to conduct a study of some of the drainage hot spots in the municipality and come up with recommendations on 

Don Wiebe - File photo how to improve those areas.

The municipality, meanwhile, completed its second full year of operations under municipal amalgamation. Council initiated a couple of projects aimed at better connecting with local ratepayers, and creating an identity for the new municipality.

"One of the things we did was design a float which appeared at local parades this past summer to some pretty good reviews. In addition, we redesigned our website, launched a new app and began publishing a quarterly newsletter. Hopefully word is getting out there that this is what we are about."

Wiebe says other significant work under amalgamation in 2016 included the development of an economic strategy for Rhineland, and a new emergency plan for the municipality.

An event that made headlines in May was the fire that badly damaged the Plum Coulee community hall and arena. Extensive repairs and renovations to the facility began in summer, which forced the closure of the facility for the 2016/17 season. The reeve says he expects the facility will be up and running with ice for next season.

"We don't want to go two years without ice in Plum Coulee. We're hoping to soon have an engineer's report with respect to the base in the arena so that we can proceed with putting in a concrete floor."

Some of the other work includes improvements to the geothermal system and expanding the lobby and dressing rooms in the arena, while improvements to the lighting, acoustics, heating system and insulation are scheduled for the community hall.