Volunteers at Manitoba’s only black bear cub rehabilitation centre will have a comfortable place to stay while providing critical care to the young animals.
Rockwood council conditionally approved a request Roger and Judy Stearns of Black Bear Rescue Manitoba to use a 980-square-foot temporary mobile home on their 10-acre property. The mobile home would provide space for volunteers who are helping with the black bear cub rehabilitation centre, which they’ve been operating since 2018.
“As the need for bear cub rescue has increased since we opened, we require more volunteers to assist with the care of the animals. We are happy to report that we have had great success at finding reliable volunteers who carefully follow our professional protocols for animal care and safety,” stated the Stearns in their letter of intent.
“Some of the bear cubs arrive at only a few weeks old or with injuries or illnesses that require us to provide round-the-clock care for them. As a result, it is advantageous to have volunteers stay on site to help provide this critical care.”
Since the centre opened, they’ve rescued and cared for more than 80 cubs at the Rockwood facility before releasing them back to the wild.
“This mobile home would provide the ideal accommodation for volunteers who must help care for cubs at our centre. Additionally, since we sometimes must travel to release cubs or for personal reasons, the mobile home could provide accommodation for volunteers who are caring for the animals in our absence,” states their letter of intent.
“For these reasons, we are respectfully requesting that we be able to utilize the existing mobile home on our property to help us with our bear cub rehabilitation programming.”
South Interlake Planning District had no significant concerns with the request, and council granted conditional approval.
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In other council news:
• A Rockwood resident requested permission to vary the minimum site width requirements for a property on Road 4E. The applicant requested to vary the minimum site width to 101.3 feet from the required 200 feet for a proposed lot. In February, council conditionally approved a subdivision that would result in the creation of a 10.485-acre yard site for an existing dwelling and a 69.015-acre agricultural parcel. One of the conditions was to obtain a variation order for the site width of the proposed lot. In April, council approved a request for a minor variance for the site area of the residual lot to 69.015 acre from the required 80 acres. South Interlake Planning district had no concerns with the variance application. Council approved the request.
• A Stony Mountain resident requested to vary the minimum yard setback to build a 240-foot deck attached to their home. Their request is to vary the rear yard setback to 20 feet from the required 25 feet. South Interlake Planning District had no significant concerns with the request. Council approved the request.
• Different Stony Mountain residents requested to vary their minimum yard setback to five feet from the required 10 feet for an addition to their home. The proposed 1,020-foot addition would include a garage as well as a master bedroom and laundry. South Interlake Planning District had no concerns with the proposed addition and the variance request. Council approved the request.
• Work is underway to install the new forcemain that will serve the new Stony Mountain development, which will include a mix of residential, commercial and industrial lands.
