The risk of infection of the West Nile virus has escalated to moderate in the Heartland and Five Hills heath regions, but the possibility of the risk increasing to severe is high.

Dr. David Torr, consulting medical health officer for Heartland Health Region, said this is the peak season for contracting the virus in the region because the migrating birds that bring in West Nile are in the area, the Culex tarsalis mosquitoes are here in high numbers and there are more people active outdoors during August. He said there have been no cases of the West Nile virus reported in humans yet, but if people do not take precautions that is going to change.

“We identified (West Nile) in the birds and the mosquitoes are around and are biting or will have bitten infected birds and that will lead to human infections,” said Torr. “As much as we haven’t seen (human cases) we are expecting them. We are hoping that if people take the appropriate precautions that we will see much less or much fewer cases.”

Torr said people need to wear protective clothing, use insect repellent containing DEET, clean and empty containers that collect water and keep screens on windows and doors in good shape. He said reducing time outdoors between dusk and dawn is also important because the Culex tarsalis mosquito that transmits the virus is an evening and morning biter.

“The Culex tarsalis requires some warmth, but it doesn’t like the mid-day heat,” he said. “It’s rare that you’ll be bitten by it in the mid-day sun although it can happen in shady areas. The other mosquitoes, the nuisance mosquitoes, come all the time (and) anytime, but they are not responsible for spreading the virus.”

To read more please see the Aug. 12 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

The new swimming pool in town is $19,000 closer to reality thanks to a successful partnership last month between the new pool committee and the Davidson Cyclones senior hockey team.

Jessie Foster, new Davidson Swimming Pool fund committee member, said the Cyclones helped move along the construction of a new pool by allowing the committee members to auction off a few items at their annual golf tournament and a few of the guys even donated their hair to the cause.

“Everything was really successful,” said Foster. “The group that comes out to support the Cyclones were also very supportive of the pool, so it was a great partnership between the two groups.”

Foster said Colton Allan, Keith Lawson and Brayden McNabb offered to shave their heads for donations to the new pool fund, which proved very prosperous for the committee. She said the auctioning off of the CASE IH Scout utility vehicle that was previously donated to the committee by Young’s Equipment really helped move them closer towards their final goal as well.

The committee has now raised $218,000 towards their goal of $1.3 million, which they hope to raise over the next year-and-a-half in order to start construction on the new 84 feet long by 35 feet wide six-lane pool by 2015. The next fund-raiser organized by the committee is coming up on Oct. 19 when they would be holding the Harvest Hoe-Down at the Davidson Communiplex.

“That is where we will be doing the Duck Drop,” she said, noting people can still pick up their ducks through Danielle Schneider. “There will be 12 cash prizes we’ll be giving away for that. It’s also going to be a family event, so there will be lots of activities for the kids and the families.”

Foster said the group is also going to be having the King Farmer competition at the Hoe-Down where entrants will be tested on various fun farm skills on equipment donated for the contest by John Deere.

“We’ll do things such as parallel parking combines and the farmer that can do it in the fastest time without hitting any of the objects that we’re going to place around the course will win a trophy and have the bragging rights of being Davidson’s King Farmer.”