A major project for the RM of Morris in 2017 was the start of construction on the new Rosenort fire hall.  Reeve Ralph Groening said construction work began in fall at the town's Industrial Park by the Public Works shop.

"The new 1.2 million dollar fire hall in Rosenort... will be completed in the summer of 2018," said Groening.

Council has also made changes to its fire chief job description.

Groening said the positions of building inspector and fire chief are now one full-time position. He hopes to have the successful applicant start in January of next year.

The RM also received government funding on several projects over the year.

A total of $802,082 was acquired for Rosenort's Industrial Park road extension, which will help develop the community's growing Industrial Park.

$100,000 in provincial funding was used to upgrade gravel roads over the summer. The RM's gravel budget for the year was $700,000.

The Manitoba Municipal Road Improvement Program approved council's request to repair the gravel roads that were damaged in 2016 due to excess moisture.

"We put in extra effort and put additional dollars into providing support for agricultural communities, so we added about $200,000 to our road budget for gravel," said Groening.

The 2-year project to raise and hard surface 5 miles of PR 330 was also completed.

This year the RM finally received attention from the province about upgrading the Kronsgart Drain. This drain in the southwest corner of the municipality hasn't seen any maintenance in over twenty-five years.

Groening was also pleased to announce that 60 miles of drain maintained was completed, rather than the usual 30 miles.

Close to a dozen residential homes were added in 2017, and Groening is happy with the continued growth.

"We had reasonable residential development and also considerable commerical development in 2017," he said.

The commercial projects included K-Tec Earthmovers' million dollar expansion in Rosenort. Another million dollar project took place in Lowe Farm at the Co-op, where a fertilizer blending facility was built.