Part 1

For 34 high school students of Ste Rose du Lac and neighboring communities, their 1971 Opportunities for Youth project will always have a special meaning. As the years passed, no doubt some of them will move away from their home community: in which event they will have a common purpose in planning reunion get-togethers -- preferably at Dollard Park, the scene of their joint efforts for ten weeks of this summer.

Operation Dollard Park can be described as the most unique of six Opportunities for youth programs carried out in the Parkland Region. Unique not only for the ambitious scope of the community improvement undertaking, but also for the imagination and initiative shown by the students in raising funds to buy materials and in designing buildings, bridges, roadways and footpaths in the park and trailer camp areas that have become a real source of community pride.

When the Federal Government's Program was announced last spring, the Ste Rose Parks Board, with three members each from the Camber of Commerce and the Knights of Columbus, responded to the suggestion from the Parkland Regional Development Corporation to submit a local parks project to Secretary of State Gerard Pelletier. A planning meeting brought out representatives from the high school students' council, the village and rural councils and other interested citizens.

The application was drafted and submitted, on the basis of a survey made of the Park and river potential for development. On May 13 a telegram from the Secretary of States conveyed the welcome news that a $20,037 grant had been approved to cover wages for the proposed crew of young workers.

The challenge of ""making good"" was naturally the theme of pep talks that went along with initial counseling from the senior advisory group. Within a matter of weeks it was obvious that the message was loud and clear to the students as they were hired and organized by Dennis Pinette and Gilbert Desroches, students council leaders, both in grade 12.

All grade 12 and 11 students wanting employment -- from Ste Rose, Ste Amelie and Laurier districts -- were given preference in the hiring procedure, with some grade 10 students also getting on the payroll. The project provided 27 full time jobs and all told 34 students, 6 of them girls, participated in the workforce during July and August. University student Buckman Yee was chosen by the students to act as their foreman.

Preliminary planning required a good share of involvement on the part of the Parks Board committee of Marcel Saquet, chairman, John Volc, Walter Worrall, Albert Normandeau, John Roche, Stan Bourbonniere and Rev Doug Graves, as well as the Village and Rural Councils which agreed to assist the project with grants of $500 each, the Parkland Regional Developers who produced a working map to guide the youth group, and the Provincial Government which took charge of dredging the Turtle River channel to feasible the creation of a marina setup for boats to travel right from the doorstep of Ste Rose north into Lake Dauphin, some 10 miles distances by this waterway.

Adult support was also forthcoming when the students initiated an advertising campaign which took the form of a four - sided ""billboard"" erected in the center of the playground car lot. No less than 42 businesses bought space on this colorfully painted directory, which stands 14 feet high.

The parishioners of Ste Rose de Lima Catholic Church and Joseph Maillard entered the project picture in a substantial way, by making their landholdings available for permanent beautification and development. And it can be appreciated that parents and neighbors of the students found their tool sheds and kits depleted of everything from rakes and shovels to hammers and saws for the best part of the summer.

Purchasing of two used one-ton trucks to haul gravel and rocks, for ""next to nothing"", plus locating four wheelbarrows to borrow, was all in the line of business experiences for the young people. Setting up payroll sheets, assigning work duties -- and handling a concession venture for chocolate bar and soft drink sales among their own group -- were among other administrative details. Small wonder Denis Pinette and Gilbert Desroches are enrolled in business administration and commercial courses at the University of Manitoba!

The work gangs were all set to go after the July 1st weekend. The story of their efforts -- leaving to the imagination the aching muscles and tired backs that were part and parcel of Operation Dollard Park the first week or so can be summed up this way.

Man-hours of labor, up to the close of the employment programs Sept. 15, totaled 11,460 at the government set rate of $1.75 an hour.

In addition to the Federal Grant of $20,037 for wages, $2,500 was raised and spent for materials such as lumber, paint, cement and for truck operations.

About 1,000 yards of gravel, soil and rocks were moved with the trucks from gravel pits and farms throughout the district, with the wheelbarrows used to handle the on the spot moving.

Hundreds of posts, from poplar trees cut down, were peeled, treated and painted to serve as markers for the roadways, parking lots and trailer lots.

Two footpath bridges over a small creek were designed and built by the boys, and old railway ties were used to build a bridge for vehicles entering the trailer camp.

A large cookhouse in the trailer camp rates top marks for the engineering ability and ingenuity used by the builders. Claude Roche added the piece de resistance with his wall size painting of the grotto.

Space for 14 trailers is provided in an area that only months ago was so sense with poplars, maples and willows it was almost impossible to walk through. Barbecue pits, picnic tables and sand pits for youngsters are included in the facilities, which are located at the south side of the park. Footpaths led through the treed area to the river.

A tourist information building, swings and monkey bars are in the central playground area.

To the north, near the Ste Rose de Lima Church which was built in 1960, is the site of the most unique feature of the project: a marina which will eventually lead into a small lake with beach facilities. A drag line was needed to get this project underway, and the complete boat-docking facilities are still in the plans for future development.

A natural outdoor theatre is another project for the future, having been discovered as a potential by accident, thanks to an over enthusiastic bush clearing bee in the woods to the south of the grotto.

Part 2: 

Dollard Park Named After French - Canadian Hero.

Dollard Park, which takes in more than six acres of land bordered on the west by the Turtle River,is fronted by Provincial Road 476 as it enters the Village of Ste Rose du Lac. Tourist conscious Chamber of Commerce members point out that the location has a special feature for visitors, in being within a five minute walk of all the business and community facilities.

A portion of the land was used as a church picnic grounds for years, and the most developed area since the late 1950's is in the vicinity of an impressive grotto structure built adjacent to the treed setting along the river. The grotto is a miniature replica of the Lourdes Grotto, famous for centuries as marking where the apparition of the Blessed Virgin appeared before three little children.

The name Dollard was given the Park many years ago, old timers of the Ste Rose Community say, as an historical tribute to the French Canadian hero Adam Dollard, who sacrificed his life in 1660 in a battle against the Iroquois at the Long Sault Rapids on the Ottawa River.

Part 3

Village of Ste Rose du Lac

In 1920 due to the growth of the Village of Ste Rose and the numerous concerns of the inhabitants, it was deemed necessary to establish a council and proclaim Ste Rose a Village. On August 11, 1920 Mr. D Tremaudin was appointed to make an assessment of the Village of Ste Rose according to the rules of the Tax Commission of Manitoba and this assessment be presented to the Council on or before but not later than the 1st of November 1920. His salary was to be $200.

Over the years, animals running at large in the Village were a concern and at many meetings these concerns were expressed for example on July 15, 1920: By-Law 1: was that animals not to be able to run at large in the Village and Mr. Alfred Normand was named as dog-catcher with Mr. Eugene Montsion as pound keeper.

December 24, 1927
Resolution #9
J.L. Guillas
A. Hamelin

Whereas some backbiting persons have caused to be spread among our homes population rumors which are injuring or are apt to injure to a great extent the reputation of the members of the Council of the Municipality of Ste Rose and consequently that of their families, be it resolved as follows: That this Council does hereby decide to put up the sum of $150 to be given as a reward to the person or persons who will prove satisfactorily that the said councilors wrongfully and unlawfully received or caused to be received or caused to be misappropriated municipal funds during their respective terms of office. (Carried).