DAVIDSON—Swimmers should expect reduced hours at Davidson Swimming Pool this summer due to a shortage of staff.

As of last Wednesday, Davidson recreation director Trevor Ouellette said he has two lifeguards for next season and he’s received an application for the manager position.

The pool usually has eight lifeguards on its payroll. This helps with scheduling and allows the pool to be open on evenings and weekends.

With a staff of three, Ouellette said the pool’s hours would be limited to Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

This will allow for lessons in the morning and public swimming in the afternoon.

To entice lifeguards to work at the pool Ouellette asked town council to increase wages of swim instructors.

“I have no problem increasing wages. It’s a niche job and they are looking after our kids’ lives,” Coun. Tyler Alexander said.

Mayor Clayton Schneider cautioned council that if wages for one sector of the town’s payroll increased, other workers would want a raise.

As it stands Ouellette said there are only four lifeguards in the community eligible to work under the junior program and two of those individuals do not want to. He said with a wage increase, it might attract senior lifeguards back to work at the pool.

The shortage in staff is due to the demographics of the region, which has a scarcity of teens aged 14 to 17. Another factor is the positive economy and some teens do not need to have a summer job or choose not to have one. A challenge, Ouellette said, is that some would prefer to spend their summer at leisure.

It’s put Davidson pool and other pools in local communities in a difficult position as they seek qualified lifeguards and instructors.

DAVIDSON—A problem coyote is no more.

In late February, Angela Shaw noticed the coyote when she was taking out her garbage and saw the coyote down the back alley close to the swing sets by the pool.

She hopped in her vehicle to get a closer look and to confirm the animal was a coyote and not a dog. She took a few pictures and told her husband Jason, who checked it out. By then the coyote had moved closer to their house eating the garbage she’d put out.

Pest control officer Lee Storey was called in.

Storey said his plan was to chase the coyote out of town with his truck.

“Normally coyotes are fairly timid. This one, I went within 20 to 30 feet of it and it growled at me, then returned to eating.”

Because of its bold and aggressive nature, Storey shot the coyote.

“In my opinion this one would have been a problem. He was fairly skinny,” Storey said.

The concern was the coyote could have been a threat to children and pets.

DAVIDSON—Heartland Health Region is in the midst of renovating a portion of the north wing at Davidson and District Health Centre and converting it into a medical clinic that will be known as the Davidson Primary Care Clinic.
The clinic is being designed so that two physicians can work there.
Its first resident will be Dr. Olamipo Bamigboje, or as she’s come to be known, Dr. Ola.
She is practising out of a temporary clinic in the health centre’s boardroom.
The goal is to have the renovations completed by the end of March, said Cathy Hinther, care team manager at Davidson and District Health Care Centre.
The north wing of the health centre was built in the late 1960s as part of the Prairie View Lodge nursing home. It was left untouched when renovations and construction in 2000 created the health centre.
Much of the wing was mothballed and used for storage except for four rooms at the south end of the hallway, closest to the nursing station that are designated for respite care.
Those respite rooms will remain as will a couple of rooms for storage. The remaining two-thirds of the wing is being converted into the clinic. A door has been installed to separate the health centre from the clinic. Access to the clinic via the health centre and vice versa will be limited to health care professionals. Four former resident rooms in the north wing will be used as clinic rooms. There will be Tele-Health room and a consultation room, a reception room and an office.
Hinther said the work is nearly complete.
Heartland still needs to look at the parking situation.
Parking spots for the clinic are limited. There isn’t a parking lot outside the north wing’s entrance so people will have to park in the health centre parking lot and walk around the facility, following the sidewalk that cuts between the health centre and the Elks Housing Units.
Hinther said in the spring, once the snow and ice is gone, Heartland’s facilities personnel will come out and look at the parking situation to see if a parking area can be created closer to the new clinic’s door.
“Because we started in the middle of winter, it’s difficult to assess,” Hinther said.
She said the health region would have signs posted guiding people to the primary care clinic.