featured

Patrons look to lease pastures

PFRA patrons groups will have the opportunity to lease their pastures from the province instead of having to purchase them, according to the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture.

Lyle Stewart, Minister of Agriculture, said the first 10 federal community pastures to be transitioned from the province to patrons groups for the 2014-grazing season would have a lease option available if the groups are not able to purchase the land. He said the province would own the pastures in this instance and patrons groups would hold the lease to operate the pastures.

“We’re trying to be as encouraging as possible to patrons groups to consider purchase because we think it’s in the long-term interest,” said Stewart.

The Saskatchewan Government is working with Farm Credit Canada to develop financing options for patrons groups interested in purchasing their pastures.

“The more we ran the numbers ourselves, it appears that some of the pastures won’t work real well for a sale and may necessitate leasing,” he said. “It was always an option, leasing was, but we find…sales probably are not going to work for every instance.”

The first 10 community pastures to be divested by the federal government in Saskatchewan include: Estevan-Cambria; Excel; Fairview; Ituna-Bon Accord; Keywest; Lone Tree; Newcombe; Park; Wolverine and McCraney. In all, 62 pastures operated under the Community Pastures Program in Saskatchewan will be transferred to the province and patron-controlled operation by 2018.

The pastures will continue to be managed by federal government PFRA (Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration) staff during the 2013-grazing season.

Stewart said these first 10 were chosen due to interest from patrons advisory committees from these pastures. He said these groups have expressed interest in “going early” in the transition process, which made them a priority.

“There are also factors which have a negative influence on moving (some) pastures to the front of the list and those are things like a lot of oil and gas activity that has to be transferred into the provincial system and that is a big IT job and a lot of work,” he said.  “It might take a little longer. There are some pastures that contain substantial tracks. There are 440,000 acres in all that don’t even have or never have had titles raised for them, so that is going to take a little time. Those are negative factors. The positive ones are generally interest from the patron groups.

“Of course, before any lease or sale can be conducted those patrons groups will have to become legal entities, so that we’ll have somebody to deal with.”

Stewart said the province is only working with an “estimated value” of these pastures at this point and before any lease or sale can go through they will have to be appraised. He said expensive commodities such as oil and gravel will “generally not” be included in a lease or sale.

“The only offers that we are entertaining for sales or lease are offers from the patron groups that already occupy the pastures,” said Stewart, adding there will be no competing interests for the pastures from corporations or out-of-province groups.

“Some of (these 10 patrons groups) have just expressed interest. Others have presented proposals or ideas. All of that is being considered, so it’s early days. We’ve sent out letters to the patrons of the first 10 pastures that have been chosen and we’ll be holding in-person meetings with patrons groups with those 10 pastures in the near future.”

To read more please see the Oct. 29 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

Davidson, featured

Davidson School’s “Jail and Bail” a big success

The new hardwood floor appears to be a reality for Davidson School’s main gym thanks in large part to last Wednesday’s hugely successful “Jail and Bail” fund-raiser.

Sandra Baldwin, a grades 10 to 12 math and science teacher at the school, said the “prisoners” raised $26,000 at the event, which had 17 locals locked up in classrooms at the school desperately working the phones to try and raise bail money. She said $13,000 came in physically through cheques and cash, while another $13,000 was pledged.

“If the money from the pledges come in that will bring us pretty close to $37,000,” said Baldwin. “We’ll be right there.”

The school started a Sea of Blue campaign last month to try and raise $40,000 by next March so they can upgrade from a rubberized floor in the main gym to a hardwood one. The Sun West School Division will replace the floor next summer and the school was given the option to upgrade if they could raise the additional money that a hardwood floor would cost.

Davidson School kids and teachers started a “Buy A Tile” campaign where 4,000 tiles from the old gym floor would be sold for $10 each. In just less than two months, the campaign raised over $10,000. Once all the money from the pledges are forwarded to the school or the prisoners, the school can send it on to the school division coming close to their final goal.

“The ‘Jail and Bail’ exceeded any of our expectations,” said Baldwin. “People had a great time with the kids. It was so much better than anything we could have imagined.”

Local school kids and even an abiding RCMP officer rounded up the prisoners by force or they could just turn themselves in at the school at the start of afternoon classes. They were then given a bail kit, a nametag and a card that read out their offence, before being led to their cells of school classrooms where they had to work the phones in trying to raise bail.

To read more please see the Oct. 29 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

Craik

Guild weaves tribute to June Exelby

The Prairie Wool Weavers, last Tuesday, honoured the late June Exelby with a tapestry that was woven from wool and created from love.

Exelby, who died in 2009, was a founding member of the Prairie Wool Weavers, a guild of local spinners, weavers and dyers.

“It gives me great pleasure to dedicate this tapestry to June, our founding member, mentor and the best friend anyone could ever have the privilege of having,” said Linda Judd, the wool weavers’ president.

The tapestry depicts the hip roof barn on the Exelby farm. The guild picked the barn as the subject because it was dear to June’s heart, Judd said.  Guild member Anna Hergert drew a cartoon from a photograph of the barn taken by Judd. The weaving was done in strips by several members on looms set up in the Craik library, where the PWW, thanks to the library, have a weaving room.

The tapestry was made from pure wool and it has needle felting over the weaving. It took the guild about a year from the planning to weave the tapestry. Roy Vibert made the tapestry’s frame out of barn board from the Exelby farmyard.

Judd said the PWW was formed in March of 1977 when Agatha Heinen, Myrna Luther, Una Pound, Kate Waterhouse, Christina Kennedy, June Exelby, Leona Kunkel, Kay Gust and Mabel Nordmarken met to form a guild. “This was the beginnings of the Prairie Wool Weavers, a loosely woven organization of slow-moving fun seekers,” Judd said.

When the guild formed an executive, Exelby was its treasurer, a position she held until her death.

“As were all the founding members, June was always willing to share her considerable knowledge with all the members that were to join the guild in later years,” Judd said.

Over the years, the guild took on many projects, one of which was a tapestry of Craik’s skyline at dawn. Judd said that Exelby and her granddaughter Lynley drew a cartoon for the tapestry. From this design, members wove strips. The finished tapestry was donated to the Craik Hotel to thank the hotel for letting the guild use a room to store its supplies.

The Craik Hotel burned down about 10 years ago. The tapestry was destroyed in the fire.

Kenaston

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.”

Davidson, Sports

Davidson Cyclones ready to hit the ice

The Davidson Cyclones senior hockey team is ready to hit the ice for their first game of the 2012-13 regular-season next week.

The team, who will essentially keep their core together from their Long Lake Hockey League (LLHL) and provincial “C” division championship season of last year, face off Nov. 9 against the Drake Canucks in Drake in a rematch of the championship finalists. The team will open up their home schedule at the Davidson Communiplex on Nov. 17 against the Lanigan Pirates.

Jason Shaw, head coach of the Cyclones, said the team only lost five players from last year due to a couple retirements and a few moving away, but the core of the team including 2011-12 league MVP Steve Dasilva, Derek Allan, Brady Willner, Mark Zoerb, Brett Siroski, Kevin Johnson, Chad Manz and Colton Allan are back to try and repeat as league and provincial champs.

“We’ve had a pretty good run in the past three years and it would be nice to repeat as league and provincial champions, but we’re quite a ways from that at the start of the season,” said Shaw. “Championships are what we’re looking for, but there is a lot of work that needs to be done between now and then.”

The Cyclones senior hockey team, who has played out of Davidson under different names since 1905, won their first league championship in the LLHL last season. The team came over to the LLHL in the mid-1990s after competing in the River Lake Hockey League and many others throughout the years previous.

The team has won three straight provincial titles including the “D” division championships in the 2009-10 and 2010-11 seasons and the “C” division championship last year.

Shaw said the team plays a high-tempo offensive game as evidenced by their league leading 172 goals for last season, but that is not the only aspect of their game.

In the 22 regular-season games last year in which the club won 18 and only lost one in regulation, the team also posted a second best total of 96 goals against and the second most penalty minutes total of 420 in the six-team league that also boasts clubs from LeRoy, Lanigan, Watrous, Drake and Nokomis.

“We’d like to be up there in scoring again, but the penalties we’d probably like to rein those in a bit,” said Shaw. “We’re more of a wide open and free-skating team. We’ve got the biggest rink in the league ice surface wise, so with our talent we’d like to play more of an open game and not quite as tight-checking.”

Obituary

Turner

It is with great sadness the family of Joffre Turner announce his passing at the Davidson Health Centre on Saturday, September 29, 2012 after a very short illness.

He was born Sept. 14, 1916 at Staffordshire, England. The family moved to the McCraney district in Saskatchewan in 1922. He went to school at McCraney, Briggs, Wyondotte, Horseshoe Lake and Chatham. He began working at the age of 14 as a farmhand in Saskatchewan, Alberta, and B.C. He joined the R.C.A.F. in 1941 and stationed in Calgary.

On Sept. 6, 1942, he married the love of his life Nadine Seaward – having 60 years of marital bliss. They had three sons, Reg (Marlene), Ron (Sandy) and Gordon (Pam); one daughter Susan (Ed) Camber, six grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren. After discharge in 1945, they started farming at Bladworth until they retired to Davidson in 1996.

He was predeceased by his parents George and Elsie; brother Jack; four sisters Nancy Lovatt, Joyce Mathers, Chris Butler and Marj Kadlec and daughter-in-law Irene Turner; son Gordon Turner and devastated in 2003 by the loss of his wife and best friend Nadine.

The celebration of Joffre’s life funeral service was held on Friday, October 5, 2012 at the Davidson United Church at 11 a.m. with Rev. Diane Eurig officiating.

Interment in the family plot, Bladworth cemetery. For friends so wishing memorials in memory of Joffre may be directed to the Bladworth Cemetery Fund or to the Davidson and District Health Care Foundation.

Hanson’s Funeral Home, Davidson, in care of arrangements.

The Davidson Leader, Davidson, Saskatchewan