The reeves of 4 municipalities south of Steinbach are meeting tonight to talk about poor cell phone service. The reeves of Stuartburn, Piney, La Broquerie and Franklin are getting together to plan a lobby effort for better service.

Stuartburn reeve Jim Swidersky says the lack of adequate cell phone coverage put many people at risk in forest and brush fires 10 days ago. He adds it's time to find out why they don't have service and how they can apply pressure to make sure it is provided in the future. "The potential for fatalities was great last week because we had no cell phone coverage in the southeast," said Swidersky. He adds, "Cell service just in the town of Vita and the surrounding 3 or 4 miles is great. After that you have no cell phone service or very spotty. Even PTH 12 from Steinbach going south to the Middelbro customs, to the U.S. border, basically from the Sarto corner, there is no service. And in today's day and age, that's a major trade corridor, a 24 hour U.S. port and we don't have any coverage. Railway lines, natural gas lines that go through the southeast and we don't have emergency communication via cell phones."

He expects more municipalities will join the lobby effort in the days and weeks ahead because they face the same issue.