A growing number of hockey players in town will stop heading over to the curling lobby to dress for games this week because a new girl’s change room has opened at the Davidson Rink.

Trevor Ouellette, recreation director for Davidson, said the town spent $1,000 to remake the janitor’s room next to the washrooms at the rink into a girl’s change room. He said there were four dressing rooms and one restroom and the younger age boys and girls are allowed to change together, but once the kids get a bit older they want their own room making a need for the new addition.

“For our bantam team, the girls actually (went) onto the curling side and changed in the curling dressing room and then they walk in their socks carrying their skates and helmet over to our dressing room where the boys are dressed and they put their skates on there,” said Ouellette. “They should have their own room. It’s something that I’ve always tried to address, but it just takes money to do something properly. You don’t want to just throw them into a dark (and) dingy janitor’s room and give them a chair, so we’re going to spend a little bit of money, lay some proper flooring and put them in a well-lit area. It’s still going to be a separate room, but at least it’s better than having to walk through a lobby in their socks.”

Ouellette said something had to be done about the situation even though there haven’t been many complaints raised to him from players and parents. He said this new setup would still be a janitor’s room, but at least it’ll give the girls someplace now that’s private.

“It’s something that has probably been building for a while,” he said. “It probably should have been done last year, but we just decided ‘you know what let’s get it done now.'”

Doug Palmer, ice technician at the Davidson Rink, said work on the new room began last Monday and took around four days to complete. He said they started by moving the old storage into the upstairs storeroom before putting the mats down and then bringing in some benches and shelving.

“When we run into troubles is when there is two games back-to-back and basically you’ve got all four dressing rooms being used and there is no room for the girls to change,” said Palmer, noting the corner “L” shaped bench being put in should seat four players comfortably creating a space for the girls in town who play on these older teams.

Davidson councillor Jason Shaw said Hockey Canada and Saskatchewan Hockey Association (SHA) policy regarding gender accommodation requires two separate rooms for boys and girls once they reach pee-wee age (11 years old). He said there hasn’t been any bantam or midget teams in town for a few years, so there wasn’t really a need to do this until now.

To read more please see the February 3 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

The Craik detachment of the RCMP and Saskatchewan Government Insurance (SGI) are teaming up to remind local motorists to take steps to prevent thieves from breaking into or stealing their vehicle.

Kelley Brinkworth, SGI manager of media relations, said there are “some really simple” and “pretty obvious” ways for people to stop vehicle theft. She said these include shutting windows tightly, locking all doors, removing valuables from a vehicle such as spare change, parking in a well-lit area, installing an alarm or using a theft prevention device such as The Club and never leaving a vehicle running while unattended even if it is locked.

“It has a lot to do with the convenience factor,” said Brinkworth about never leaving a vehicle running while unattended. “In the winter it’s so cold out and (people) probably think ‘OK, well I can just run into a store here and come back to my nice warm vehicle,’ but it’s just an additional risk there. It’s more easy access for a thief.”

According to SGI statistics on vehicle thefts in Saskatchewan, the number of stolen vehicles has actually gone down every year after a five-year high of 2,395 vehicle thefts were reported in 2011, but that doesn’t mean people should be any less vigilant. SGI still received more than 1,900 claims for stolen vehicles in 2013 resulting in a cost of close to $10 million.

Craik RCMP constable Ian Smith said the majority of vehicle thefts and break-ins in this area usually begin when keys are left somewhere in a vehicle.

“The most common crime around here comes from transients,” said Smith. “They look for vehicles that have keys in them. They’ll search everywhere in the vehicle for keys.”

Brinkworth said leaving possessions in a vehicle that are visible to someone walking by also gives a would-be thief incentive to try something. She said never leave suitcases, golf clubs or electronic equipment such as a laptops or even a collection of cds laying out in plain view.

“If a thief can’t see it then they might not think there is anything, so what is the point of breaking in, but if they can see it out there it’s just something that makes it a little harder to resist,” said Brinkworth. “So why risk it?”