Saskatchewan Minister of Rural Health Randy Weekes stopped by the Davidson Health Centre July 12 in an effort to discuss the pressing issues on the minds of this community’s leaders and promote a new health care model for rural Saskatchewan.

Davidson Mayor Clayton Schneider said the message Weekes received in Davidson was clear. He said the minister was told a second doctor for the town is needed to help ease Dr. Lang’s workload and 24-hour emergency care in the community needs to be maintained.

“The things I brought up, my number one was letting him know that my biggest concern was retaining and adding a physician that meets everyone’s needs,” said Schneider. “What I mean by that is it meets everyone’s needs as in the doctor’s, the region and of course provincial and municipal. The second thing was maintaining a 24-hour emergency service. Currently Davidson is doing 10 days a month and one thing I know is if you do lose something, it is hard to get it back.”

Weekes said the discussion with the community leaders was “very positive” and the suggestion he had was Davidson is a good location for a Collaborative Emergency Centre (CEC). He said a CEC is a form of family health care that keeps emergency open and has flexible hours.

“As an example, keeping emergency care open from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. by a registered nurse and an advanced paramedic in consultation directly with a emergency physician somewhere in the province, so patients that would come in to emergency would be triaged (and) they would be asked to come back for same day or next day appointment with a physician or nurse practitioner,” said Weekes.

“Some would be treated and released and the true emergencies would be sent on by ambulance or STARS and dealt with by a physician in a hospital, an emergency physician.”

Weekes said the other key component of a CEC is the physician, nurse practitioner and health care team would provide 12-hour clinics to people during the day seven days a week, so there would be a need for another physician in the town. He said this gives emergency care to patients and also allows the physicians to not be on-call.

To read more please see the July 22 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

The Valley Gun Club has sent in a request to the RM of Arm River to establish an outdoor shooting range on a quarter of land in the municipality.

John Ackland, secretary-treasurer of the Valley Gun Club, said gun enthusiasts are no longer able to shoot at their outdoor range in the RM of Craik because it has been turned into an active gravel pit. He said the 30 to 35 members of the long-standing club then had to find a different spot and the Craik RM mentioned the gravel pit in Arm River as a possible location.

“It’s a very good spot,” said Ackland. “It’s near the highway (or) it’s not far from the highway, so it’s easy to get to. It’s a clear area for a lot of miles, so we shouldn’t have any trouble establishing a pit and having it sanctioned there.”

Ackland said the outdoor range would be a 500-metre section of land where members could practise their handgun, rifle and archery shooting on paper targets posted in front of a dirt or sand backstop. He said if the RM approves the range they would still have to develop the site and get it inspected and approved by the RCMP chief firearms officer.

“This will be the third range that we’ve had,” he said. “We used to have one at Martin Luther’s (pasture) and then we moved from there out to the gravel pit where we are now and now we’re (hoping) to move to this other quarter.”

Lorne Willner, Reeve of the RM of Arm River, said before the RM can approve the Valley Gun Club’s request to establish a range they first need to see if any people are opposed to it. He said the RM has not taken a position on it and it is up to the ratepayers to file their objections at the RM office before Aug. 9 if they don’t want one going in there.

“We’re not opposed to it,” said Willner. “We just want the ratepayers that might be impacted to give their opinion first.”

Dwight Puckett, owner and operator of the Davidson Indoor Shooting Range, said the club has been shooting at the outdoor range in the Craik RM for the past 25 to 30 years. He said the new site, if approved, should be just as good.

“Looking at the location, it’s kind of out of the way and it won’t bother anybody,” said Puckett. “It’s got good potential.”

A pipe is broken on Hamilton Street and a new liner is needed to be put in, but the cost to the town could be as high as $50,000 if they go ahead and fix it.

As discussed at the Davidson town council meeting last Tuesday, if the pipe goes unfixed there is potential that it could block and sewage could back up into people’s basements along the street. Council decided they are going to wait for now to come to a decision on what to do, as they would like to meet first with the people who would fix the pipe to get an idea on what is really needed.

It would cost $50,000 to fix pipes along the whole street and $18,000 to fix the two-metre section on Hamilton Street that is in need of repair. Council learned nothing is budgeted for this work, but they could dip into the $47,000 that is budgeted for repairs to the water treatment plant to complete this project.

Davidson town council stated at the meeting that the pipes throughout town are past their life expectancy and a long-term plan is needed for infrastructure repairs.

To read more please see the July 22 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

The Saskatchewan Twilite Baseball Championships held July 5 to 7 at Davidson was cancelled on the second day of play due to a heavy storm that dumped two-and-a-half inches of rain on the town.

Davidson councillor Jason Shaw, who put in hours of work fixing up the ball diamonds for the games with help from a group of local volunteers, said he called off the tournament on July 6 because of the poor conditions of the fields after the storm. He said the games on July 5 were played, but they couldn’t even get through the top of the first inning in the first game on the second day.

“The two diamonds that had shale on them held up in the rain longer than the temporary (one) that we made,” said Shaw. “You can’t put rain on sand and dirt. Even on the shale diamonds the mounds are made of clay and dirt. We would have been alright with half-an-inch of rain, but (with) two-and-a-half inches there was just water laying everywhere.”

Shaw said the majority of the 600 people who came to town stuck around for all three days despite no ball games being played, so the weekend should still be considered a success. He said the campgrounds and motels were full with people and most of the businesses in town benefitted.

“The beer gardens were well attended Friday night for the Rider game and Saturday when it got rained out,” he said. “There were still people around until Sunday at lunchtime. They ate at restaurants. They went to the golf course. With our central location, it’s good to have.”

Ross Lynd, a Saskatchewan Twilite Baseball committee member, said this is the first time in probably 20 years that the annual tournament has been cancelled because of rain. He said they haven’t had a follow-up meeting yet, but it likely would not be rescheduled.

To read more please see the July 15 print edition of The Davidson Leader.