Category Archives: featured

featured

RCMP policing costs increase by 8 per cent

The cost of rural policing is going up by 8 per cent this year and next bringing the price of keeping the Town of Davidson protected to just under $36,000 in 2012 and over $38,000 in 2013.

The cost of policing the towns of Hanley and Craik, which both have an RCMP detachment, is going up to under $30,000 this year and close to $32,000 in 2013 for Hanley and under $27,000 for 2012 and around $29,000 the next year for Craik.

“We’re happy with the service,” said Gary Edom, Town of Davidson administrator. “We paid much more than that years ago. We paid over $100,000 years ago.”

Edom said the town used to have to contract out a man and a half from the RCMP for 60 hours a week, which is why the costs were so high. He said that when the formula for tabling up policing costs was changed for the 1999 budget year, the town then only had to pay about a third of the original bill.

The price of having the RCMP look after Davidson is now based on a per capita rate. It has increased to $35.05 per person between April 1 and Dec. 31 in 2012 compared to the 2011 rate of $32.45, which ended March 31 of this year. For 2013, the rate will rise to $37.85.

With a population of 1,025 in Davidson, the annual cost to the town comes to $35,259.96 for the final nine months of 2012 from $33,261.25 a year ago. In 2013 that price tag will rise to $38,796.25 with the same population size.

“The rates haven’t changed since 2006,” said Katherine Geldart, director of financial services and risk management for policing at the Saskatchewan Ministry of Justice. She said the size of the increase is a policy decision and was put forward by the provincial government in this past budget.

The Town of Hanley will see its bill go up to $29,023.26 in 2012 with a population size of 522 from $27,378.90 a year ago. In 2013, that figure will jump to $31,935.96. They pay $56.65 per capita this year and $61.18 in 2013, up from the 2011 rate of $52.45. Their rates are higher than Davidson because they have an RCMP detachment in the town.

“We have to wonder what we’re paying for,” said Darice Carlson, administrator for the Town of Hanley, referring to the small detachment in the town. “It’s not really a detachment as there is no manned office. Currently, the majority of calls made to this detachment get redirected to the Saskatoon office for action. If a decision was made to close this detachment, it would certainly be cheaper for the community, but it is certainly not what the citizens would wish for.

“We have and are continuing to work with the officers that live in town to be more proactive with policing in the community, but even though members live here, they haven’t been able to show their presence due to duties in the other areas of the detachment at times.”

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

featured, Sports

McNabb readies for an uncertain year with no NHL hockey

Brayden McNabb is looking to start the year as a regular on the Buffalo Sabres blueline and is working hard this summer to build up some muscle and improve his foot speed, despite the threat of a NHL owner’s lockout cancelling the upcoming season.

“I’m going to have to earn a spot out of camp, so I’m doing my best to train right now over the summertime and get myself ready for that,” said McNabb, the Davidson native who split the 2011-12 year between the big club and their affiliate in Rochester. “The camp will be (open Sept. 15) and that’s what I’m training for right now. When the time comes, I’m hoping to be ready to go and get a chance to crack the top six.”

The 21-year-old defenceman played 25 games for Buffalo in his first year in the pros last season scoring a goal and assisting on seven others. He suited up for another 45 with the Rochester Americans racking up 30 points including five goals for the AHL club. He was picked up by the Sabres in the third round of the 2009 draft while playing with the Kooteney Ice of the WHL.

McNabb said he is on the ice pretty steady now as he builds on the repetitions to get more game ready, progressing from only lacing up the skates one or two times a week in early July. He trains with Kelly Riou of Next Level Training in Saskatchewan during the off-season, but also spent three weeks this summer in Buffalo working with Doug McKenney, the team’s strength and conditioning coach, at the Sabres’ home rink, the First Niagara Center.

“It’s a bunch of weights and a lot of feet stuff,” he said about his exercise routine. “That is the big thing I need. Earlier in the year I do more weights and more in the gym. Now that it’s August I’m skating almost five days a week, so it’s a combination of in the gym and skating right now. Usually at the start of summer I try to get more weight put on and get some more muscle and get some muscle back. Later in August and into September I try and get my cardio more into shape.”

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

Davidson, featured

Davidson mayor decides not to seek re-election

Mary Jane Morrison will not be running for a third term as mayor of Davidson in the fall election saying she “just felt the time was right” for her to step down, but she will continue to try and make the community a better place.

“Anything that I haven’t accomplished or still would like to see happen, I still will contribute to as a citizen,” Morrison said. “That is maybe a little bit of encouragement for other people in our community too. Everything doesn’t fall on those six council members and mayor to make things happen in our community.”

Morrison said she first entered town politics eight years ago because she believed it would be “exciting and rewarding” to be a part of the growth and progress of Davidson.  She first was elected to town council in 2004 in a by-election. Two years later she ran for mayor winning by acclamation, replacing Jim Cross.

“I knew it was a big job,” she said. “I knew it would be bigger than I thought. One thing I’ve sort of seemed to find in the last six years is when something doesn’t go well or an organization or an institution or something is struggling or falling, they look to town council for solutions and sometimes that is overwhelming.”

Despite these struggles, Morrison said the town council in her time as mayor has accomplished many things including becoming more “current” on planning and the way council has formed a relationship with its staff.

“We also have a better understanding of community development,” she said. “When I first got on council eight years ago, we kind of thought there was economic development, but I think we know now that there is a lot more to it. It is the community as a whole and I think we are growing in that respect.”

Community development, physician recruitment and retention and seeing the town grow and progress have been the major interests of Morrison in her time as mayor, but the advice she would like to pass on to the next mayor of Davidson is just to keep positive.

“Keep things in perspective,” she said. “There is so many positive things that happen, so don’t let the negatives deter you. They do get more attention and more coverage, but don’t let that bother you.”

featured

Proposed new riding of Arm River to include Craik

Saskatchewan Party MLA Greg Brkich will not be representing the constituency of Arm River-Watrous in the next election. Not to worry, he’s staying put. It’s the riding that is changing.

Arm River will be the new constituency for Davidson and Craik, taking over the town from the current Thunder Creek riding.

“I enjoy representing Arm River-Watrous and I will enjoy representing Arm River in the next election,” said Brkich.

The new riding, recently proposed by the provincial boundaries commission, will stretch down to Central Butte in the southwest and run north along Lake Diefenbaker. It will then go above Hanley and move along a straight line under Watrous before hitting Big Quill Lake and then move down through Wynyard. Using Last Mountain Lake as a natural boundary it will head south passing just above Strasbourg on its way to Regina Beach before cutting straight across above Moose Jaw on its way back to Central Butte.

“Changes happen (to ridings) when the population changes,” said Brkich. “You have to adjust to the changes you’re given. It will be a little larger because the population has grown and the area (covered) is a little bigger.”

The Saskatchewan Provincial Boundaries Commission is established every 10 years as required by the Constituency Boundaries Act to propose an electoral map for the province based on the latest Statistics Canada census data. Its mandate is to keep the voting population of a constituency at 13,059 with an allowable variance of five per cent.

“Changes are driven by demographics where you have changes in population (like) increases or decreases,” said Stuart Pollon, deputy chairperson of the Commission. “It requires a realignment or adjustment of the constituencies to continue to try to keep them as even as possible.”

To read more please see the August 20 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

 

Craik, featured

Rollover claims lives

A seven-year-old boy and 44-year-old woman are dead following a fatal single vehicle roll over on Highway 11, five minutes south of the Town of Craik.

RCMP media relations’ spokesman Sgt. Rob King said the names of the deceased have not been released and could not confirm their hometowns or relations to each other.

The woman and boy were both trapped inside the vehicle and were extradited by Craik Fire and EMS. The woman succumbed to her injuries on site, while the boy had to be airlifted to the Hospital in Regina in serious condition by STARS where he passed away early the next morning.

The crash occurred on Aug. 4 at 3:15 p.m. in clear conditions and closed the northbound lane of the highway to traffic for around six hours while the RCMP Traffic Reconstruction Unit from Saskatoon assisted with the investigation. A coroner from Regina also attended the scene.

King said the boy and women were both seated in the passenger side of the van, with the women seated in the front seat. The male driver of the vehicle and a five-year-old girl seated in the backseat on the driver’s side received minor injuries and were transported to the Regina Hospital.

This is the second fatal accident on Highway 11 near Craik this summer, following a horrific semi-trailer collision with a car July 3 that resulted in the death of a 38-year-old woman driver of the car. STARS also airlifted her to the hospital in Regina after she was freed from her vehicle by Craik Fire and EMS.

Davidson, featured

$1.3 million fund-raising campaign kicks off

Every little drop counts, Davidson’s Swimming Pool committee is reminding folks as it kicks off a fund-raising campaign to build a new swimming pool.

Little drops may eventually fill buckets, but it would help the community if money came pouring in, because the pool committee has given itself an ambitious mandate to raise $1.3 million in two years. They hope to start construction on the new pool in the summer of 2015.

Davidson’s Swimming Pool committee launched the fund-raising campaign last week after town council, on Tuesday, OK’d its fund-raising plan.

To start, the committee is sending letters to local citizens, detailing the project. An important part of the package is a survey seeking peoples’ opinions on the new pool.

“We set down a list of must haves and we have a wish list. We want to see if our must haves are the same as the community’s,” said Jessie Foster, swimming pool committee member.

They want people to fill out the surveys and return them to the town so that the new pool will meet the community’s expectations.

The surveys will also give the committee insight into the sorts of extra accessories people want the pool to have should the community exceed the fund-raising goal.

One design being proposed suggests a rectangular-shaped, six-lane pool that is 84 feet long and 35 feet wide. Added to these dimensions, in the concept, is a J-shaped section that has a beach entry towards the shallow end that creates a separate paddling pool area for toddlers and waders.

The new pool will be built just north of the current pool’s location, on a parcel of land being donated to the project by Bryan Ulmer.

Town administrator Gary Edom said Ulmer offered to donate some land for the pool with the stipulation the land is used for a swimming pool and pool only.

“We can’t have anything commercial on the donated land,” Edom said.

To read more please see the July 23 print edition of The Davidson Leader.