The Kenaston Super Draft can be listed as one causality of the NHL owner’s lockout of its players this year.
Don George, chairman of the Super Draft, said they will not be operating a regular season draft this year and a playoff draft is currently up in the air as to whether one will be conducted. He said this is due to the length of time it would take to get a gaming license from the province and to get the forms made up of the players available to be picked as well as the poor response he expects to get from hockey fans turned off by the latest labour disagreement.
“It definitely affects our community,” said George of not having a draft, noting last year’s regular season draft raised $20,000 for community projects and employed a number of local people to implement it. “We have had a full-time employee who is out of a job plus all the part-time people who work during the draft and stuff. There is no employment for them either.”
George said it takes around six weeks to get the draft up and running putting them into the beginning of March before players could be selected, which would be about 20 games into the shortened 48-game 2013 season scheduled to begin this weekend. He said the season will also probably be extended into late April making the start of the playoffs occurring in early May when people have things on their mind other than hockey, if that is on their mind at all this year.
To read more please see the Jan. 14 print edition of The Davidson Leader.
Category Archives: Kenaston
Kodiaks to play on hardwood
The Kenaston Kodiaks senior girls basketball team are tentatively scheduled to take on the Middle Lake Avengers Dec. 14 in what will be the grand unveiling of the new hardwood floor and glass backboards in the Dan O’Handley Gymnasium at Kenaston School.
Darren Gasper, principal of Kenaston School, said the basketball tournament will serve as a “kickoff” for the refurbished gym and the school is looking to bring in all the major donors for the game who helped in getting the funding secured for the school to build the floor and install the basketball backboards. He said the school is also inviting members of the community to come to the afternoon game to take a look at the improved gymnasium that also serves as a community hub for sports activities.
“We’re aiming for about a 2 p.m. start, but we’re still waiting to hear from Middle Lake if they’re able to come at that same time,” said Gasper. “It’s coincidental, but Middle Lake is the school we based the fund-raising floor project around because they did the exact same thing last year. Their basketball coach was actually a big help with suggestions about how we could go about doing it. They’re going to be here to kick it off, so it’ll be nice to see.”
Gasper said the floor, which last received an upgrade 28 years ago, was supposed to be replaced by the Sun West School Division next year with a rubberized gym floor, but after consulting with members of the community the school decided to approach the division about putting in a more expensive hardwood floor this year. He said the school division agreed to the project if the school could come up with the cost difference of installing a hardwood floor versus a rubberized one.
“While we were doing that we decided to do the glass backboards at the same time, so the gym is going to get a whole refinished look.”
Gasper said the school had to come up with $40,000 on top of the $55,000 Sun West was putting towards the renovation for the floor, while the school was responsible for the full $8,000 cost of the new backboards. He said members of the community including individuals, families, organizations and businesses were extremely helpful and willing to donate funds to make up the extra costs.
“We’re building a big donor board made up with the same floor material to go on the wall outside the gymnasium to recognize all our donors with some family names or memorials in memory of particular people or company logos if it’s a business that donated just to recognize them,” he said, noting the major donors to the gym floor project were Dakota Dunes and the Kenaston Lions Club through their Super Draft hockey lottery.
Gene Zdunich, head coach of the senior girls basketball team, said everyone is extremely happy a new floor has been put in as the old one was “compacted” and provided no give in it. He said the new hardwood floor is going to make it easier on the players’ knees during game time and practice.
Gasper said the school also has plans to build a running track behind the school in the spring and renovate the school and community playground in the early summer. He said building the track would come at a cost of around $20,000, while the new playground will cost at about $64,000.
To read more please see the Dec. 3 print edition of The Davidson Leader.
Superdraft shutdown due to lockout
The NHL lockout has shut down the Kenaston Super Draft until the team owners and players work out a resolution.
Don George, chairman of the Super Draft, said they would not start a draft until the season starts and the regular season draft might not even occur this year depending on how far into the season the lockout drags on.
“We can’t do anything until there is a settlement with the NHL (team owners and the National Hockey League Players Association),” said George. “Then it would have to depend on when that’s done. If that’s done before the first of the year, then you’ve got time to do things, but if it gets to be into the New Year I’d say it might be hard to do a regular season.”
The Kenaston Super Draft, put on by the Kenaston Lions Club, has been raising money through its regular season and playoff hockey pools for Lions Club projects around the community as well as national and provincial charities since the start of the 1984-85 regular season.
George said the separate regular season and playoff drafts usually attract about a “couple thousand contestants” to each who hand over $40 for one entry or $100 for three for a chance of winning the grand prize of $30,000 in each pool.
In the past 29 years, the Kenaston Super Draft has raised approximately $11 million in revenue including $4.5 million in prizes and $3.5 million in charity funds.
“We do things in the skating rink, the swimming pool, our Kenaston Place community centre and also the Kenaston School,” said George about what Lions Club projects the money is put towards. “If we can we always try to put some in towards charity too.”
The lockout is also affecting local employment in the town as administration of the draft usually involves a paid staff of approximately 25 people who will not be able to start work until the NHL gets back to business.
George said they have been thinking about some possibilities other than the NHL for a draft this year, but for now nothing is going on. He said a minor hockey Super Draft was not looked into due to the amount of work that would be involved in setting it up.
“In past lockouts with the whole season (lost due to a lockout in 2004-05) we didn’t have any draft and back when the first one happened (1994-95) they started in January and we ran a partial draft,” he said. “With this one we have no way of knowing what is going to happen. It could be over in a week or they could be out the whole year.
George said they may be losing money due to the lockout, but were still “just affected a little bit” compared to the people that are actually employed with the teams and that is who he is thinking about as this continues.
“I just wish they’d play hockey,” he said. “That would make it easier on everybody.”
Kenaston co-ops paint the town white
The Affinity Credit Union and Riverbend Co-operative teamed up recently to help out the community of Kenaston by stripping, pressure washing and painting the curling rink.
“We wanted to do something that would benefit the community and Affinity is all about supporting communities,” said Toni Tweet, financial service supervisor at Affinity Credit Union. “We did it on a week day and we sent staff to the curling rink to paint, of course the staff were paid their normal wage. For Affinity, it was donating the staff hours to go and paint the rink.”
The refurbishing took place July 27 when members of the co-operatives went down to the rink to scrape off the old paint and pressure wash the building. A week later the rink was painted white.
“There were probably 10 to 15 people who were painting the curling rink,” said Tweet. “There were two sprayers and lots of people painting with rollers and brushes. It’s a building that is owned by the town, so we wanted to do something to benefit the town.”
This act of goodwill was performed as a way to celebrate the International Year of the Cooperative that brings together co-ops from across Saskatchewan to help out their community who support them by buying memberships.
Tweet said the rink needs a second coat and the front of the building still needs to be done, but that will have to wait a little bit until they can get their hands on some more paint. She said around 40 gallons of paint were used on the building to apply the first coat.
“Co-op is all about membership,” she said. “It is about community ownership, so this is some way that we could give back to the community.”
Federal funds to flow west
Lynne Yelich, Minister of State for Western Economic Diversification, came home last Thursday to announce new funding for upgrades to existing infrastructure in Western Canada.
The announcement held at the Kenaston Swimming Pool saw the Kenaston resident and Conservative Party MP for Blackstrap announce $46.2 million in funding allocated towards community facilities including local arenas, community centre’s and sports fields over the next two years.
“This money is targetting community points of interest,” said Yelich. “It is not very easy to get money. Swimming pools are very expensive to run, so when they need an upgrade any money they can access for the upgrade is significant. (By holding the press conference at the pool) we’re trying to demonstrate the idea of what kind of community infrastructure would be able to apply for this funding.”
The money will be paid out to a community by regional agencies after a project has been completed and is in line with their proposal to Western Economic Diversification Canada (WD), an agency run by Yelich’s department. Only existing infrastructure that is in need of upgrades need apply.
Dan O’Handley, Mayor of the Village of Kenaston, said applications would be going out to WD towards getting a new filtration system for the pool as well as gaining a grant for upgrades to their hockey rink. He said that he wasn’t aware that money would be flowing west this quick, but was happy to have Minister Yelich back to announce the new spending.
“In rural Saskatchewan, money is hard to come by,” said O’Handley. “We’re not like the big places where they get a lot more grants. When we do get one, we’re always appreciative.”
Yelich said the money is only going towards existing infrastructure upgrades because funding new projects is just too expensive in a time when the government is trying to get out of deficit and into a balanced budget.
“In the meantime, all these communities may need is maybe a pump or a roof or an upgrade of some sort that will make a significant difference to that community,” she said. “Whether it’s seniors, the Legion, or the library, if there is something that needs an improvement then that’s what we will do.”
New intersection proposed for Highway 11 and 15
KENASTON—Residents of Kenaston and area had a chance to view proposed changes to the community’s main intersection.
Saskatchewan Highways and Infrastructure put on an open house June 6 seeking people’s reactions to four options dealing with the intersection of highways 11 and 15.
As part of planned upgrades to Highway 15, the provincial government is studying options to improve the intersection of highways 11 and 15.
The current intersection is skewed, meaning the highways intersect on angles, so as part of the upgrade, the government is proposing to move the intersection to make it safer.
“It’s not very safe at all,” said Tracy Danielson, director of regional design and construction for Saskatchewan Highways and Infrastructure.
They had four options for people to look at. Most suggested moving Highway 15 either north or south of town.
Option 1 proposed no change and would leave it as is.
Option 2 proposed moving the intersection south of Kenaston that would require 4.73 km of upgraded Hwy. 15 and 2.46 km of service road. A new bridge/culvert and rail crossing would be required. As well, this route would require the highway to be constructed on environmentally sensitive grasslands south of Kenaston.
Option 3 offered moving the Highway 15/11 intersection north of town requiring 2.90 km of Highway 15 to be built and a service road of 1.83 km in length.
Option 4 also proposed moving the intersection north of the village, but giving the village even wider berth so that 4.84 km of highway 15 and 2.76 km of service road would be built. As well, this option needs either a new bridge or culvert and a railway crossing.
“They missed the most important option: an overpass,” Kenaston resident Allan Krpan said. He said that with 12,000 vehicles going by each day, the intersection is one of the busiest in Saskatchewan.
Kenaston’s Mayor Dan O’Handley said he liked Option 4 the best.
“The noise level would be cut way down and by looping way north, we have room for northern expansion,” he said.
Increasingly, Highway 15 is experiencing more heavy truck traffic. It has been designated as a high clearance corridor through Saskatchewan.
Transport trucks hauling very tall loads must travel Highway 15 so they can use the bridge in Outlook to get their cargo across the South Saskatchewan River.
“For us tonight, the most important part is finding out what people who live in the area think about it,” Danielson said.
She said the community should hear back within 12 months on the plans for the intersection.
“We don’t have a specific timeline, nor is there a design or budget in place,” she said.