The business buzz
- Details
- Published on Saturday, July 16, 2016
By Sheila Runions
Banner Staff
The last time this column appeared was March 25 and in those 3.5 months, more exciting things have happened in Rivers.
The first was June 1, when Darren Whelpton moved his home-based business to Rivers. In 2014, he started Whelpton Electric, which was run from the family farm 12 miles southeast of Rivers. He is now located at 251 First Street (Hwy. 25) in the old B&G Electric building.
B&G owner Graham Common has retired from the company he started in 1980, so Darren seized the opportunity to move his business into a building constructed specifically for an electrical company. Whelpton Electric has two employees.
After 22 years of service in the Rivers area, Gill’s Plumbing & Heating expanded on June 24 with delivery of a new 2,700-gallon septic truck as well as a tandem truck. GPH Services is a division of Gill’s Plumbing & Heating, which has six employees; no new people were hired for GPH. At this point owner Todd Gill is the lone septic operator; he is the only one certified as a registered hauler with the On-Site Waste Management legislation. He says his company has “always strived to diversify and has always installed septic tanks and fields” so providing the clean-out service complements what work is already being done by the business. The new tandem truck labelled GPH Services will be used to haul gravel and “numerous other services we provide.”
On June 25 Johan and Pauline Lok moved to Rivers from Carman, bringing five of their six children, aged nine to 20, with them. (The sixth child moved here on May 1 so there was already a local connection before the rest of the family came.) They bought the Ernie and Alice Fast property which is the former R&L Repair garage which Fasts moved to the southern side of Rivers and converted into a 1,200 square-foot home with attached workshop. With the Lok move to Rivers comes a new business, Johan’s Construction Ltd. That company was formed June 2003 and since 2008 “70-80 per cent of our work has been in western Manitoba, from Pilot Mound to Dauphin,” so they were looking for a location closer to their primary service area. Johan’s main avenue of work is pole and stud frame farm and commercial buildings — machine storage/shops, barn/cattle shelters, etc. Before the couple branched out with their own company, they were part of the family-owned barn building business in Carman. Johan says, “ We hope and pray to be an active part (living and working) in and around the community.” If you require the services of this new company, please call the office at 204-328-7310 or Johan’s cell at 204-745-7628.
Prairie Ground Solutions formed approximately 18 months ago, a partnership of Riversites Bryan Smith, Darren Bray, Matthew Dyck and Virden man Brian Braybrook. They sell, rent and install composite ground protection matting which is currently used by landscapers, utility companies, construction sites, the oil/gas industry, etc. where protecting the ground and vehicle support is needed. They provide this service throughout Canada (thus far B.C.-Ontario) and northwest United States with a major coup being a Pan Am Games contract last year in Toronto where 3,400 mats were rented by the Games as a temporary parking lot and pedestrian walkway. Because the company is growing and more work of cleaning mats is being done at the former curling rink parking lot, a decision was made to drive a truck in the parade on July 6. Bryan says, “A lot of people see us out washing mats and stuff so we thought we’d put something in to show people we’re around, even though we know we don’t do a lot of stuff locally.” For more information on this Rivers business, visit prairiegroundsolutions.ca.
Work on the new water treatment plant continues to proceed on schedule. There have been a few short-term rain delays but because Horizon Builders was able to start the project early (March instead of April) they still expect to be finished by March 2017. With the basement basically complete, passersby are now able to notice forming, rebar and sleeving for mechanical equipment on the main floor, which will have its concrete poured “very soon,” says Mayor Todd Gill. “Once the main floor is poured you will see removal of the pit wall forms and at that time, backfilling will take place. Then up with the main building, which is structural steel and metal cladding which is all here and stored at the [municipal] compound.”
On a less positive note, MW Construction & Electrical as well as Gland Slam Plumbing & Heating have each pulled their signs from the business section of Rivers. The Brandon-based companies planned to expand in Rivers and on March 10 and 21 respectively, installed signs on the building at 546 Second Avenue, which was bought by MW owner Paul Whittom. While neither business intended to use the space as a retail office, it was encouraging to see more company names in the “main” section of town; for the last month that building has been free of signage.
