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.”

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.”