The Elbow facilities committee is reaching out to ratepayers of the village in an effort to gain their support for an expanded fitness centre on the old curling rink ice surface and a pickleball court set up during the summertime in the hockey arena.

Carol Patterson, chair of the Elbow facilities committee, said if village ratepayers support their proposal they would start right away on building a floor on the curling rink ice surface with the hope of having a renovated gym in place by the spring. She said this is dependent on raising around $70,000 to get the work done, but if they know their proposal is supported they can at least start the main planning.

“Our curling rink has not been working for probably 20 years or more maybe and we have the front part of it as a small gym now,” said Patterson. “We want to expand that into a bigger gym space to put in some lightweight fitness equipment and space for classes (like) yoga and tai chi.”

Patterson said the group would like to upgrade their equipment such as treadmills and elliptical trainers for the expanded gym. She said they would also put in pickleball court lines on the hockey rink surface in the summer to provide a place to play for the growing number of the sport’s enthusiasts.

“We have people in town that are pickleball players,” she said, noting it’s a sport that combines elements of tennis, badminton and table tennis. “It’s a sport overtaking the country and North America at the senior level.”

Norma Johnson, a member of the facilities committee, said the group would also like to set up a war memorial and Elbow sports hall of fame display at the rink to create a gathering space for the community. She said the kitchen and bathrooms on the hockey rink side and bathrooms in the curling rink have been recently renovated, so this expansion would be one of the last things to do to renew the centre.

“It is quite a good plan and it would work well for the community,” said Johnson. “There is quite a lot of people who use the fitness centre, the gym, so we’d like to get this going as quickly as possible.”

To read more please see the Aug. 26 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

If straight ahead groove oriented rhythm and blues is what you need to get you through some tough times, good times or ordinary times then the new album by The Blue Mules is right up your alley.

Trent Schmiedge, Davidson raised guitarist, singer and songwriter for The Blue Mules, said the three-piece blues and funk band’s debut album, “Blues Ain’t That Bad,” came out a little over two weeks ago. He said the full-length cd was recorded over a period of a year at Earl Pereira’s Fame Machine studio in Saskatoon.

“We just recorded on and off when we had time because with his touring schedule and he’s touring all over and mine, we just kind of pieced it together,” said Schmiedge, noting Pereira is the driving force behind rock band The Steadies. “We had some fun doing it when we had the chance.”

Schmiedge said this is his first album where he has been in charge, but he has played guitar and contributed vocals on a few albums by other bands before. He said all the songs on “Blues Ain’t That Bad” are originals and he wrote the lyrics and music for the tunes.

“Most of them were just written in the studio,” he said. “There are songs that I had written a while back and never had a chance to get into a studio until last year. Some of these songs are 10 years old.”

The Blue Mules have been together for around two years, said Schmiedge, and “play now and then” for fun. He said Saskatoon’s Dale Ehman plays bass and Graham Templeman pounds the drums in the group.

Schmiedge said the band is hitting the road this fall to tour for the album. He said they would be playing clubs across Western Canada in November “after the Riders win the Grey Cup” including stops in Banff, Red Deer and Edmonton.

“That is the strategy,” he said. “Thebluemules.com is (our) website. We have dates on there and music.”

The cd can be picked up at Stedmans in Davidson and is also available on cdbaby.com for purchase and download. Schmiedge said if people are into Eric Clapton, B.B. King and Stevie Ray Vaughan, “Blues Ain’t That Bad” should make them as happy as it makes him.

“I’ve always wanted to put out a record like this,” he said. “I’ve played in rock bands and country bands, (but) my heart has always been in this style of music. We’re a very R&B band. That is the music I like and I wanted to try something different.”

A team of Davidson volunteers took it upon themselves earlier this summer to make a corner in the town a little easier on the eyes.

Davidson farmer Guy Sampson said the corner of Borden Street and Government Road where the old lift station is located was “an ugly little corner” in town, so he decided something needed to be done. He said the fact his daughter Kristin Sampson lives right beside the corner made the need to beautify the area that much more pressing.

“I asked Communities in Bloom if they’d be interested in doing something (and) Stuart Dougan said they were so busy with other projects, but they checked with the town and they said it would be fine to go ahead and do something,” said Sampson. “I got some volunteers and planted some trees and tried to spruce it up a bit.”

The eight volunteers including Sampson spent a few evenings in late July and early August planting the trees on the corner, then spread a bit of mulch over the problem areas and even set up a display of an old wagon in the middle of the park.

Sampson said everything involved in the project was donated to the volunteers and Communities in Bloom is now in charge of maintaining the area. He said the group has no other beautification ideas in mind, but that doesn’t mean they’re finished with the corner.

“There are a few more things we want to do to it, but right now it looks pretty good.”

After a one-year delay, construction on Highway 15 has finally begun.

Greg Brkich, MLA for Arm River–Watrous, said the repair and upgrade to 13 kilometres of Hwy. 15 east of Kenaston was pushed back a year due to a combination of factors including financial, weather conditions and a late tendering on the project, but he’s “glad” work has begun on it now. He said improvements needed to start for two reasons including the poor condition of the roadway and the necessity of a new high-clearance corridor in the province.

“We needed to make it a wide-load corridor to get some of the wide-load (trucks) off Highway 11,” said Brkich. “Highway 11 is getting busier all the time.”

Grading on the stretch of highway that spans from about 2 km to 15 km east of the junction with Hwy. 11 began May 27 and is scheduled to be completed by late fall depending on the contractor’s schedule and weather conditions. The cost of the project is $4.3 million.

Brkich said this construction is the “first stage” in a three-stage project to improve the highway. He said the total cost of the project would come to around $30 million once completed.

The second stage of the “long-range plan” for Hwy. 15 involves work closer to Highway 2 and that is slated to begin next year, said Brkich. He said the final stage in the development would focus on the intersection of Hwy 11 and 15 at Kenaston.

“That will be the last section that will be fixed,” he said. “When it’s finally completed they may change the intersection. They are looking at it (now), but nothing has been decided yet. That is a couple years away.”