The RM of Portage la Prairie's organizing a sign-up program for Delta Beach seasonal cottage owners who are hooking their system up to the regional water supply.

Reeve Kam Blight explains, "Basically they're just looking at doing a sign-up for a program to turn water on and off for the seasonal cottages out at Delta. For those looking at hooking up to the regional water, instead of our utility department trying to respond to individual wishes as far as timeframe is concerned, we're proposing a sign-up where people will enrol in a program where people turn their water on in a certain time in the spring, and then two different shut-off times in the fall."

He notes they're looking for residents' responses.

Page's meter set constructed to be removed to avoid pipeline freezing

"So, we're going to give that program a chance, and see what everyone's thoughts are, and tweak it if we have to. Utility Operator Blaine Page is also going to be doing a presentation on how to properly protect your water equipment from freezing up, etc., how to drain everything. He's developed his own little mechanism there for making that very simple so that the home-owner can do it themselves. All that information and demonstration will be provided to the cottage owners."

Page describes his apparatus.

"What I built was just a meter set with a couple of unions in the system to take the whole unit out for the winter at the seasonal cabins. The radio reader is normally up and attached in a different location, but this is having it attached to the meter itself. So, everything comes out. It's a little more guarantee you've got all of the water out, in case it doesn't get to a warm location for the winter."