Carson Palmer’s ewes come running as the 12-year-old carries a pail of oats. Palmer owns and cares for a herd of 26 ewes and their offspring on the family farm east of Davidson.
By Joel van der Veen
DAVIDSON — It’s a sunny spring day as Carson Palmer heads out to do his afternoon chores.
Tending a herd of 26 ewes and their lambs keeps the 12-year-old boy busy.
He’s often the first one up in the morning, and he’s back out there after he comes home from school.
Lambing is weeks away, and warm weather will be a welcome sight as the ewes in Carson’s herd begin delivering their offspring.
“It’s going to be a busy April and May around here,” says his father Dean.
Carson is the oldest child of Dean and Tracey Palmer, who live east of Davidson in the RM of Arm River.
Their family operation is largely built around livestock, including around 300 head of cattle, plus about 1,000 acres of cropland.
But the growing herd, made up of Dorper and Dorper-cross ewes, is Carson’s business.
“They’re entirely Carson’s enterprise,” says Dean, who clearly approves.
“It’s pretty unique . . . He can get out of the house and have some responsibility. He’s doing quite well.”
The Dorper breed was developed in South Africa in the late 1940s, according to the website of the Canadian Dorper Sheep Association.
Today, the Dorper breed is the second largest breed there with over 10 million head, representing more than 1/3 of the total sheep population in South Africa.
The breed has also seen increasing popularity around the world, including in Canada and the U.S.
Dorpers typically have white bodies and black heads, and their usual lifespan is about nine or 10 years.
They are recognized as a profitable breed given their early maturation and the strong demand for lambs.
As well, Dorpers shed their wool each summer, which reduces the work and expense required for their care.
For the full story, please see the April 10 edition of The Davidson Leader or call 306-567-2047 to subscribe today.
Local resident Bernard Janzen, pictured at the Davidson library branch on Wednesday, signs a petition in support of maintaining provincial funding for Saskatchewan’s regional libraries.
By Joel van der Veen
DAVIDSON — With close to 10,000 items in its collection, there’s plenty to keep a bookworm busy in the Davidson library.
But the local collection is no match for the combined holdings of all the province’s libraries — numbering more than four million books, DVDs, CDs and other materials.
Budget cuts to regional libraries will effectively cut off access to any material outside of a user’s local branch — a devastating loss, in the eyes of some.
“In a small-town branch here, what you have available is limited,” said Bernard Janzen, a patron of the Davidson library who lives on a farm west of town.
“No (rural) branch can really stock all of the books that the people there would be interested in reading,” he continued. “It’s a nice place to come and read (but) the purpose of it is gone.”
Library staff and users were reeling last week from the news of massive funding cuts in this year’s provincial budget.
Funding for Saskatchewan’s seven regional libraries will drop from $6 million to $2.5 million, a cut of 58 per cent.
Jan Smith, director of Palliser Regional Library, said the region’s staff were “gob-smacked” by the announcement of the funding cut, which took effect April 1.
Palliser’s 20 branches include the libraries in Davidson, Craik, Elbow, Loreburn, Holdfast, Imperial and Bethune. The region is headquartered in Moose Jaw and extends south to the U.S. border.
Six employees at the Moose Jaw office received layoff notices last week, representing 75 per cent of the staff in that office. The layoffs take effect at the end of May.
Smith said local branches will likely see some reduction in operating hours, with the municipalities being asked to cover a greater share of staff salaries.
In an update posted online, Palliser staff said the cuts would have a substantial impact on the services available at their branches.
There will be no more regional funding for new books, DVDs or magazines.
Most electronic resources — including Hoopla, a digital service that provides access to movies, TV shows and more via computers and mobile devices — will be eliminated for rural branches effective April 1.
Staff also said the cuts would affect the Single Integrated Library System (SILS), which allows users to borrow items from any library in the province.
Without funding for the couriers who transfer items from one library to another, the SILS program would have to wind down, Smith said.
As of April 1, patrons will only be able to request items held in Palliser’s libraries, and by the end of May they will be limited to the items held in their local branch.
Cutbacks at the main office would also affect the services provided to local branch staff, including everything from payroll to technical support.
In the Davidson branch, patrons were being encouraged to add their signature to a petition, calling for a province-wide vote on maintaining library funding “at least at 2016 levels, indexed for inflation.”
The petition was organized by Regina lawyer Merrilee Rasmussen, in accordance with provincial law that states a petition signed by 15 per cent of the Saskatchewan electorate will result in a plebiscite on the question at hand.
Organizers said about 125,000 individual signatures are needed. Only people eligible to vote in Saskatchewan can sign the petition, which is being circulated around the province.
For the full story, please see the April 3 edition of The Davidson Leader or call 306-567-2047 to subscribe today.
Geena Heinrich sings a solo during the Central Saskatchewan Music Festival grand finale concert.
By Joel van der Veen
DAVIDSON — She’s starting to feel more at home on stage — and just in time, too.
Vocal student Geena Heinrich is set to perform at a provincial music competition in Saskatoon in June, following her successful performance at the local level last week.
As she said Wednesday, it’s taken a long time for her to feel comfortable singing before an audience.
“It’s my last year performing and I actually don’t hate performing now,” she said following the Central Saskatchewan Music Festival grand finale concert in Davidson.
“I was just really shy. I didn’t mind when literally no one was there.”
Heinrich, a Grade 12 student at Davidson School, will be performing the song “Memory” from the musical Cats.
She received a recommendation from adjudicator Alicia Woynarski.
Heinrich is the first performer from the district festival to move on to the provincial level since 2007 — ending a decade-long drought, in the words of festival president Nancy Wilkins.
A longtime piano student, she has studied voice under Cheryl Dolan for the last four or five years.
Dolan said this is her first time preparing a student for provincials.
“This is all going to be new for me,” she said Thursday, adding that she is making plans for Heinrich to rehearse the piece with Joy McFarlane, an instructor with particular expertise in musical theatre.
Dolan had high praise for her student, saying that with her high soprano vocal range, she would likely have success in any genre she tried.
“She’s a really neat young lady,” said Dolan. “She’s been just fun to teach, easy to teach, and has an incredible, beautiful tone.”
She also affirmed that Heinrich is feeling more relaxed on stage this year than she ever has before.
Heinrich said Wednesday she is feeling a little nervous, but also excited to broaden her horizons.
Her current plan after graduation is to attend film school for animation in Vancouver, but she also hopes to continue pursuing her other artistic interests.
Accompanying Heinrich during her festival performances was pianist Pearl Unger.
For more coverage of this year’s Central Saskatchewan Music Festival, see the April 3 edition of The Davidson Leader.
Avery Ebenal faces a team of dancers — from left, Macy Palmer, Brooklyn Ruehlen, Jesselynne Palmer, Hannah Gust, Meghan Allan, Mackenzie Beck, Brookelynn Wick and Bella Thomson — in the opening jazz dance, “Enough.”
By Joel van der Veen
DAVIDSON — Family, friends and guests filled the gym at Davidson School for last Sunday’s spring dance recital.
The students of the Davidson Dance Club presented a 90-minute show on the afternoon of March 19.
The program featured a total of 30 performances in a variety of styles, including jazz, ballet, tap, creative movement, hip hop, lyrical and musical theatre.
In past years, the spring recital was held at the end of the season, typically in May.
This year, organizers decided to bump it up by a couple of months, giving students the chance to practise their routines before going on to competitions.
“You are their very first audience,” said Kelly Allan to the capacity crowd.
Allan served as master of ceremonies along with Richelle Palmer, introducing each performance.
The club had 74 dancers registered this year. Most of the students live in Davidson, with a small number travelling from Kenaston, Elbow and Craik.
Irene Williams of Regina was the sole adult instructor this year, spending two nights in Davidson each week during dance season.
Tiara Shaw, Emily Read and Sarah Allan also served as instructors, while Hannah Gust, Avery Ebenal and Chase Lyn Dean were teacher-helpers.
For the full story and a full page of photos, please see the March 27 edition of The Davidson Leader or call 306-567-2047 to subscribe today.
The STC bus bound for Regina is seen leaving the Davidson bus depot in this file photo.
By Joel van der Veen
DAVIDSON — For Gloria Williams and others like her, the STC is more than just the bus. It’s a means of independence.
Williams, a Davidson resident, said she regularly uses the bus to travel to Saskatoon or Moose Jaw for medical appointments, or to buy material for her quilting.
Since the local bus stop was moved to the east side of Highway 11 five years ago, she’s had to ask people for rides there and back, something she hates doing.
“There’s nothing worse than pestering people,” said Williams. “I want to go and do it on my own.”
For Williams and those like her, the province’s announcement Wednesday that the STC would be shut down by the end of May was a significant blow.
Crown investments minister Joe Hargrave said Wednesday that the government would end operating and capital subsidies to the Saskatchewan Transportation Company (STC) for the coming fiscal year.
The company will close as a result, with freight being accepted for delivery until May 19 and passenger services ending May 31.
In a news release, Hargrave said the subsidies from the government had reached “unsustainable levels.”
Ten years ago, the government paid $25 in subsidies per passenger, but the cost has since increased to $94 per passenger.
The STC would require $85 million in subsidies to continue operating over the next five years, Hargrave said, adding that the government believes that money would be better spent elsewhere.
Arm River MLA Greg Brkich echoed those sentiments in an interview with the Leader on Wednesday afternoon, saying the government could not keep subsidizing STC at that level.
“How long are we going to keep doing it every year?” he said. “You have to make some tough decisions.”
Brkich said he recognized it would affect residents in his riding — maybe one or two in each town, he guessed.
Williams said she was angered by the announcement. She knows other people in town, both seniors and younger residents, who rely on the bus.
For the full story, plus additional coverage of the 2017 Saskatchewan provincial budget, please see the March 27 edition of The Davidson Leader, or call 306-567-2047 to subscribe today.
Davidson’s Mark Rettger meets some resistance from Garrett Campbell of Buffalo Narrows in the sr. boys basketball 1A regional final on March 18.
By Joel van der Veen
DAVIDSON — It was a crushing loss, but it came with a bittersweet touch.
As Davidson’s senior boys lined up to shake hands following a 96-84 loss to Buffalo Narrows in the 1A regional basketball final, coach Kim Rettger said he witnessed something he hadn’t seen in decades of coaching.
One of the Buffalo Narrows players approached Grade 12 player Andrew Read, who’d just ended his high school basketball career with a loss.
They shook hands, and then the winner reached out and embraced Read. Another player did the same for Rettger’s son Mark.
“It was a touching moment,” said the coach, adding that it was a sign of “great respect for what each of them could do.”
“I’m not a very emotional guy, but that made me kind of weepy-eyed.”
The loss to Buffalo Narrows brought an end to another outstanding season for the senior boys from Davidson, who won the school’s first-ever provincial title at Hoopla last year.
After winning at conference play the weekend before, the Raiders hosted 1A regionals on the weekend of March 17 and 18, welcoming teams from Kerrobert, Buffalo Narrows and Poundmaker to Davidson.
After a 79-35 win over Poundmaker in their opening game on Friday night, Rettger said the boys were feeling confident heading into the final on Saturday.
Buffalo Narrows earned their way to the final with an 82-51 win over Kerrobert the day before.
For the full story, please see the March 27 edition of The Davidson Leader or call 306-567-2047 to subscribe today.
