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Davidson, featured

Davidson buys CTRC building for $100,000

Davidson town council received authorization to purchase the Carlton Trail Regional College (CTRC) building on Washington Avenue last Tuesday and the town is set to take possession March 1.

Clayton Schneider, mayor of Davidson, said the town is buying the building for $100,000 with the funds coming out of the 2013 budget. He said council decided to go ahead with the purchase after seeing a need for another building in the town to hold medical services.

“To build something would cost a lot more and it makes sense to have health services near the doctor,” said Schneider, noting this also keeps the town away from a rent agreement or temporary space. “It’ll be a great thing. It’s exciting for the fact that we get our own place that we can control and get people in it.”

Carlton Trail Regional College moved out of the building last July after closing its Davidson campus.

Schneider said the town is trying to secure a dentist and their future office would be located in the CTRC building. He said the optometry services provided by InSight Vision Care at the Davidson Family Practice could also be relocated to the space.

“We recognized that we need some infrastructure for the services we are trying to get in Davidson,” he said. “This is a great idea to get our own building to get that sort of thing.”

Davidson, featured

Davidson town councillor resigns

The Town of Davidson has put out a call for nominations for a town councillor position a mere five months after the last municipal election.

Doug Gilchrist, who won a seat around the council table in the Oct. 24 election with a total of 218 votes, resigned as a Davidson councillor last Tuesday in a letter to council citing “unforeseen circumstances.” His resignation is effective immediately.

“When I first put my name forward there was more time in my day,” said Gilchrist. “It was something I could have handled and something I was interested in. I still am interested in the way the town runs. Its just sometimes life happens and you just all of a sudden don’t have time anymore.”

Starting today, nomination papers can be picked up at Town Hall for the vacant councillor position. Nomination forms can then be handed in to the town until 4 p.m. March 13. If more than one person vies for the spot, a byelection will be held April 17.

To run for council, a candidate would have to live in Davidson for at least three months previous to the Election Day in April and in Saskatchewan for six months. Candidates must also be 18 years of age and a Canadian citizen. Five electors, who have the same qualifications as the candidate, but only have to own land in town instead of actually live here, must sign the nomination form.

Donna Bessey, Davidson community development coordinator, said “it was unfortunate to see him resign” as the town needs business people and younger people around the council table to help move the town forward. She said a resignation does affect council business, as now a person will come in with no previous knowledge of what the town has been working on over the past few months.

“Its nice to have a full slate there,” said Bessey. “When you run for council, whoever elected you basically expect you to be there. When you’ve got projects that are started and you’re moving on, then with somebody new coming on, there is always that downtime trying to bring them up to speed. It makes it a little harder.”

To read more please see the Feb. 25 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

Sports

Cyclones fall to Elks in first game of second-round at provincials

The Davidson Cyclones senior men’s hockey team needed a four-goal victory in Saturday night’s game against the Kyle Elks to stay alive in provincial “C” hockey action and keep their three-year provincial championship dynasty intact.

The Cyclones lost 4-1 to the Elks at the Kyle Arena Feb. 15 in the first game of their two-game total goals wins series not for a lack of effort, but more to the fact the team was short skaters compared to the full lineup iced by the Elks.

“We’re not happy losing 4-1, but we lost (leading scorer) Steve DaSilva in the middle of the second period,” said Cyclones head coach Jason Shaw. “He took a puck to the face and ended up with seven stitches, so starting with 12 (skaters) and ending up with 11, 4-1 isn’t that bad.”

Shaw said DaSilva, who scored the Cyclones lone goal on the night at the five-minute mark of the first period, headed to Swift Current for medical attention as soon as he was knocked out of the game and is expected back in the lineup for the next game. The team was also without forwards Pat Cey and Kevin Johnson, who are serving suspensions, and captain Derek Allan, who is out long-term with a knee injury and is not expected back.

The DaSilva goal gave Davidson their only lead of the night and it was short-lived. Four minutes after the Cyclones goal, Kyle tied it up courtesy of Elks captain Danny Williams. Six minutes later the Elks would go up for good off a shot from Jeff Marshall. Two more goals in the second period by the Elks wound up being the game.

“They’re a good team, probably as good as last year,” said Shaw, referring to the Cyclones championship winning match-up with the Elks last March that saw Davidson take home its third provincial championship. “We knew we were going to have to play well to beat them and it just worked out that we could only get 12 guys there. Even with the 12 we had, there were guys that had to take off work or change stuff around. The guys that were there played hard and I thought (Cyclones goaltender) Mark Zoerb played really good.”

The next home game for the Cyclones is this Wednesday. Davidson is playing their second game of a five-game second round series against the LeRoy Braves in the Long Lake Hockey League playoffs.

“It should be a good series,” said Shaw. “We won two, lost two in league (against the Braves). We have a decent chance of beating them, but we’ll have to play well. With them having home ice, we’re going to have to win at least one in their rink and that’s always tough. They also haven’t played for a while, so they’ll be rested.”

Results of Saturday night’s game against the Elks were unavailable at press time.

Davidson

Farmers donate 2013 crop to new Davidson Swimming Pool

The new Davidson Swimming Pool committee surfaced at town council last Tuesday with an update on the progress of their fund-raising efforts, the flowing design and costs of a new pool and a few requests the committee has of the town.

Swimming pool committee members Erin Gust and Crystal Johnson told town council the fund-raising effort to date has been going swimmingly, with a new development coined “Farming for the Pool” about to add many more drops over the next eight months.

When contacted a day after the council meeting, Gust said the “Farming for the Pool” initiative came about courtesy of an offer by two farmers, who wish to remain anonymous, looking to donate their land, labour, machinery, fuel and eventual crop this year to the new pool fund. She said the men, who farm a quarter of land next to Davidson, will be donating all profits made on their fall yield to the pool with the exact money raised not known until the crop comes off the combine.

“What we’re looking to do is work with Viterra right now in trying to find them their input,” said Gust, noting the committee is very grateful for the farmers’ donation and hopes more come on board with similar initiatives. “We’re trying to find seed and chemical and a little bit of fertilizer for them. Hopefully we can get those donated by the chemical companies, so he is not out that part of his donation too.”

At town council, the committee members said they have raised $140,000 so far for a new pool since it began seriously trying to bring together funds in September, but that is still only a little over 10 per cent towards their total goal of $1.3 million that they hope to raise by 2015 in order to build the proposed new 84 feet long and 35 feet wide six-lane pool to be located adjacent to the current pool.

Gust said this initial design and the funds proposed to build it could be changed over the next few months after the town and various swimming pool building companies meet in consultation, but a few elements in the initial design are not up for discussion. She said a beach entry for kids and seniors as well as a deep end and diving board will always remain part of the final structural plans.

“We are working towards more of a concrete design of the pool and more of a concrete cost structure,” she said.

To read more please see the Feb. 25 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

featured

Lukiwski says Tory’s “screwed up” with push-poll calls

Regina-Lumsden-Lake Centre MP Tom Lukiwski said someone in the Conservative Party “screwed up” by not identifying the party as the sponsor of the push-poll call that went out to many Saskatchewan residents two weeks ago voicing the party’s opposition to the province’s new riding boundaries.

That being said, he still objects to the Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission for Saskatchewan’s final report tabled in the House of Commons Jan. 28 that redraws the province’s federal electoral map.

“I think you have to let them know who the sponsor of the calls are and that was not done,” said Lukiwski. “The party said there was a miscommunication there. I certainly take them at their word for that. They said they would be more diligent in the future and quite frankly had they identified the Conservative Party as being the sponsor of the call none of this, really controversy if you want to call it that, would have occurred.”

A push-poll call is a telemarketing call designed to rally opposition to a particular issue, but does so in a way that makes it seem it is a public-opinion survey. The push-poll call in this instance first gave the Conservative Party argument against creating urban-only ridings in Saskatchewan before asking recipients of the call to press a button if they are for or against these boundary changes.

Lukiwski said push-polls are not undemocratic as “all parties do them,” but whether they are effective or not could be debated. He said the call, which also went out to some of his constituents, is not the issue; it is the fact the Conservative Party did not identify themselves as the sponsor of it.

“Certainly a mistake was made,” he said. “That is the bottom line.”

Ralph Goodale, Liberal MP for Wascana, said he has filed a complaint with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) alleging the Conservative Party’s failure to identify themselves as the sponsor of the call broke telemarketing rules. He said the automated call said it came from Chase Research, but this company was obviously working on behalf of someone else and that someone else was not identified.

“It was essentially an anonymous call made for a political purpose and that purpose was not identified in the course of the call and that would appear to violate potentially a number of CRTC rules and regulations,” said Goodale. “It’s an issue here of transparency and honesty in making the call.

“Is it adequate to say Chase Research or should they say ‘hi, I’m employed by Chase Research, but I’m calling on behalf of the Conservative Party.’ That really is the nature of the issue here.”

To read more please see the Feb. 18 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

Davidson

Davidson students off to We Day

The grades 5 and 6 students at Davidson School are “excited about pretty much everything” concerning their trip to We Day in Saskatoon later this month, but pop rock band Hedley seems to be the big draw.

“More students want to go than we are able to take, but we are fortunate to be able to include so many by registering early and by showing commitment right from the start,” said Davidson School Grade 5 teacher Paul Stinson, noting 43 kids from the school will be heading to the Credit Union Centre in Saskatoon Feb. 27 for the celebration of youth volunteerism.

“I expect this to be an inspiring experience and that the students will be bringing ideas and enthusiasm back with them from the event. Hopefully this will be a recurring event and there will be more opportunities next year for more students to participate.”

The first We Day in Saskatchewan will welcome 15,000 young people from schools across the province for a day of motivational speaking by celebrities and activists Martin Sheen, Mia Farrow and Free the Children founders Craig and Marc Kielburger as well as a concert by Hedley among other presentations.

“Hedley’s awesome,” said Grade 5 student Jesse Palmer. “I’ve never seen him before and that will be cool.”

Tickets to We Day are not sold and are only given to deserving young people who commit one act of local and one of global change for the betterment of others.

Grade 6 student Josh Warkentin said his class got tickets though their work on a toy sale they organized with the money raised going to help the less fortunate in Haiti and by working in a community garden.

Jordan Matheson, a Grade 5 student at Davidson School, said they earned their tickets to We Day by participating in Free The Children’s “Pennies for Change” initiative, which raised funds for clean water improvements in third-world countries, and building a community garden inside their classroom.

Stinson said the student’s dedication to improving the lives of others both locally and globally is nothing new for these kids as they do this every year. He said they learn about local and global issues through classes such as art and social studies and have worked on many different projects throughout the years that “show leadership and benefit others,” which makes him extremely proud of his students.

“It’s so easy to take things for granted or to focus on trivial problems,” he said. “I see classroom dynamics, how students treat each other and their willingness to work together to take action to improve things as a parallel to society as a whole. It makes me hopeful.”