Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - July 30, 1995, Winnipeg, Manitoba Inside Story Winnipeg free press m f july to Bob Mantey and his wife Eva have lived in Plum Coulee their entire the mantels still he in the House they moved into when they got photos by Winnipeg free press hey whats Paul Mckie staff reporter Plum Coulee its every bit the Prairie town youd and its a few things you dont named after the wild plums that once grew by the Creek that runs through town a Coulee is an intermittent Plum Coulee is a peaceful churchgoing town where you stand in the Centre of main Avenue at midday and see barely a Plum Coulee is the kind of place where everyone smiles and its a place where total strangers Are invited to a Home made its a place where a Siren on the town Hall sounds at High its place where the local hotel is the Only bar where you can stay overnight for in one of the hotels four and while Grain elevators Domi Nate the Village of about 800 Resi the Village itself int a Barren town in the Middle of Grain Plum Coulee is a place where lawns Are Lush and Green plenty of that Coulee water along treeline those streets Are have sewers and the Homes have running its the kind of place Bob Mantey has lived in for his entire 86 he worked for the was a worked at the credit Union and then went on his own As an accountant All so he could stay in Plum not Only has Mantey lived in the same Hes lived on the same we moved in Here when we got Mantey he Points through the Kitchen window to where he lived with his a slice of pie and Coffee at the Happy wanderer will set you Back he mentions the towns Only murder Back in x John Krawchenko gunned Down the manager of the Bank of Mon Treal during a robbery and ran to a waiting Mantey says theres a Story that Krawchenko didst fire the fatal he says theres talk that a Sec Ond shooter tried to help the Man Ager by shooting at Krawchenko but he even Plum Coulee int free from conspiracy the town does seem free of the fact that peo ple still talk of Krawchenko 82 years after the crime is proof enough of Plum Coulee is the kind of town where you leave your keys in the ignition when you leave the Lehi if youre the worrying Type you toss them on the in the new horizons Coffee residents talk of the Village that was incorporated in they talk about How Nice their Village but also what it could have Plum Coulee missed its we were the Only Village with says Farmer John Gies Giesbrecht says the availability of water was attractive to Indus but he says the towns forefathers deliberately discouraged Industry from locating in Plum Giesbrecht said they were afraid of High taxes and poor work ing they we rent progressive at that he the need for Industry still comes largely because of the towns Young William says that More Industry in town would mean More that Way we could have enough for our Young people they have to go to the Wiebe muses Over his Dana is one of the Lucky ones this she has a Job working at the Plum Coulee when Shes not helping the handful of visitors who show up each Shes i like this she adding there Are plenty of teens in but Wheeler says most of her friends talk about How leave when there old her older siblings moved to in the Wheeler Demon Strates the a 1930s gramophone that plays a Strauss the gramophone used to belong to Hugh who delivered More than i was one of his says Isaac As he plays shuffleboard under a photo of Mcgavin at the seniors drop in a former Village coun Farmed in the Plum Coulee area until he sold his farm to two of his sons in the Menno and Bernie Bergen have diversified the Grain farm into a hog but when he looks at the Long Days and nights and the amount of Money Hes put into making a Liv Menno knows what hed i know if i had to do it again i do he surveying his Fields of theres always a hockey game or Curling at that paid for or maybe a Ball game at Centennial or maybe a slice of Raisin pie and a cup of Coffee at the Happy wan even with times As hard As they pie and Coffee is Only but then that just the kind of thing youd imagine in Plum 11 i in i Grain elevators dominate the Village of churchgoing industries were discouraged from locating in the Dana Wheeler of her friends talk about moving elsewhere they Are old Isaac and William shuffleboard at the All ;