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Davidson

Gun Club trying to establish new outdoor range

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.”

Davidson

Town takes wait-and-see approach to broken pipe

A pipe is broken on Hamilton Street and a new liner is needed to be put in, but the cost to the town could be as high as $50,000 if they go ahead and fix it.

As discussed at the Davidson town council meeting last Tuesday, if the pipe goes unfixed there is potential that it could block and sewage could back up into people’s basements along the street. Council decided they are going to wait for now to come to a decision on what to do, as they would like to meet first with the people who would fix the pipe to get an idea on what is really needed.

It would cost $50,000 to fix pipes along the whole street and $18,000 to fix the two-metre section on Hamilton Street that is in need of repair. Council learned nothing is budgeted for this work, but they could dip into the $47,000 that is budgeted for repairs to the water treatment plant to complete this project.

Davidson town council stated at the meeting that the pipes throughout town are past their life expectancy and a long-term plan is needed for infrastructure repairs.

To read more please see the July 22 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

featured

Patrons lack information for pasture transition

The Community Pasture Patrons Association (CPPAS) is calling on the federal government to grant an option of a one-year delay in the transfer of the first 10 federal community pastures to patron controlled operations for the 2014 grazing season.

Ian McCreary, chair of CPPAS, said pasture patrons groups looking to develop business plans to take control of the pastures are not able to do so due to inadequate business information that is being provided to them. He said patrons groups do not know if the federal non-reversionary land on the pastures will be part of the pastures in the future, whether non-fixed assets including bulls and machinery should be included in the patrons business plans and if it would be the patrons responsibility to cover the costs of invasive and noxious weeds.

“Put yourself in our shoes,” said McCreary Your being asked to go into business with 30 to 50 other people depending upon which pasture you’re in to take on the lease of some land (and) it’s not clear how much land, it’s not clear whether or not you get the headquarters, it’s not clear whether or not you should be building the bulls into your business plan and you have to have it done by the end of October and this is your busiest time of the year. That’s not reasonable.”

The first 10 federal community pastures scheduled to transfer to patron operation for the 2014 grazing season are: Estevan-Cambria, Excel, Fairview, Ituna-Bon Accord, Keywest, Lone Tree, McCraney, Newcombe, Park and Wolverine.

McCreary said it is the federal government that has the capacity to put this transition in a delay, as it was the federal government that initiated the process. He said the government must recognize that their time frame for the transition of these first 10 pastures is unreasonable.

“If the federal government continues to be completely unreasonable then it puts an unreasonable pressure on the province and then we have to try and work with the province to try and find a way to bridge the difference,” he said. “That becomes more complicated (and) certainly not very fair to the province. Certainly we would try and work with the province to make that happen if the (federal community pastures) remain in transition.”

To read more please see the July 15 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

Davidson

Twilite Baseball Championships cancelled because of rain

The Saskatchewan Twilite Baseball Championships held July 5 to 7 at Davidson was cancelled on the second day of play due to a heavy storm that dumped two-and-a-half inches of rain on the town.

Davidson councillor Jason Shaw, who put in hours of work fixing up the ball diamonds for the games with help from a group of local volunteers, said he called off the tournament on July 6 because of the poor conditions of the fields after the storm. He said the games on July 5 were played, but they couldn’t even get through the top of the first inning in the first game on the second day.

“The two diamonds that had shale on them held up in the rain longer than the temporary (one) that we made,” said Shaw. “You can’t put rain on sand and dirt. Even on the shale diamonds the mounds are made of clay and dirt. We would have been alright with half-an-inch of rain, but (with) two-and-a-half inches there was just water laying everywhere.”

Shaw said the majority of the 600 people who came to town stuck around for all three days despite no ball games being played, so the weekend should still be considered a success. He said the campgrounds and motels were full with people and most of the businesses in town benefitted.

“The beer gardens were well attended Friday night for the Rider game and Saturday when it got rained out,” he said. “There were still people around until Sunday at lunchtime. They ate at restaurants. They went to the golf course. With our central location, it’s good to have.”

Ross Lynd, a Saskatchewan Twilite Baseball committee member, said this is the first time in probably 20 years that the annual tournament has been cancelled because of rain. He said they haven’t had a follow-up meeting yet, but it likely would not be rescheduled.

To read more please see the July 15 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

Craik, Sports

Craik youth prepares for national lacrosse tourney

Team Saskatchewan bantam lacrosse player Kane Nolting, 13, is heading to Winnipeg next month for the lacrosse national championships.

“This year we have a pretty good team, so I think we can get second or first in the B side or maybe third on the A side,” said Nolting.

This is the third time Nolting will suit up for Team Saskatchewan at the national championships, which will be played the first week of August. He played for the peewee team the last two years when the tournament was held in Toronto.

Nolting said the competition is pretty tough at nationals with clubs from B.C. and Ontario being especially good. He said the players on the team don’t have any set positions other than the goaltender, but he’ll be right in the play every game.

“Everybody plays offence and plays defence,” he said. “For a draw it (is) two guys in the middle and then they call them restraining lines and usually you put two guys on one side of the restraining line around the defensive side and then two guys on the offensive side. Whoever wins the draw depends on which way we go.”

Playing for the green and gold in Winnipeg would cap off a great year for the Craik School Grade 8 student. Nolting’s house league team, the Moose Jaw Mustangs, won both the Moose Jaw Kinsmen Lacrosse Association league championship this spring and the gold medal at provincials held July 5 to 7 in Regina.

Nolting scored the second goal in the Mustangs 7-4 victory in their provincial title win against the Regina Stealth on the final day of the tournament.

“Most of the teams (at provincials) we played before in Regina and some of them are pretty good teams, but we managed to win,” said Nolting.

The love of lacrosse came instantly to Nolting, even though he said his introduction to it came by accident. Nolting was playing spring hockey with a team out of Moose Jaw four years ago when an email was sent out to the players inviting them to a “come and try it day.”

Nolting, along with his younger brother Deacon, 12, and older sister Charly, 15, “just decided we were going to try it,” he said. “We went and we liked it, so we started playing.

“It’s just fun to run around and score goals and play defence. It’s lots of hitting. It’s really physical. It’s more physical than hockey and more interesting than baseball.”

Davidson, Sports

Sarich to compete at Western Canadians

The Saskatoon Raiders peewee A ball club is relying on some local help behind the plate this August as they try and capture the Western Canadian title.

Raiders back catcher Jamie Sarich, 14, said the competition at the Aug. 2 to 5 Under-14 Western Canadian Championships held in Prince Albert should be fierce as it brings together the best teams from Manitoba to B.C., but they have high hopes on doing well.

“It should be good games all around,” said Sarich.

The Raiders recently came in third place at the provincials’ tournament in Regina finishing with a 3-3 record. Before that the ball club won a silver medal June 25 in the peewee A division of the Saskatoon Minor Softball League as they lost a hard-fought final game to the champion Saskatoon Lasers.

Sarich said the season on a whole for the team so far has been “pretty good.” The Davidson School Grade 9 student said their hitting could improve, but the team’s overall defensive game have helped them better their competition.

“We got silver in all our tournaments except one and then silver in city playoffs,” she said.

Playing city league ball this year involved a lot of dedication on behalf of Sarich and her parents Lorne and Rhonda as they’re “gone six night a week” for practices and games, said Sarich, but the catcher and the rest of her team hope it all pays off with a Western Canadian title.