By Joel van der Veen

DAVIDSON — The Town of Davidson will scale back on its pavement plans for this summer as it attempts to shoulder other unexpected costs, council heard at its meeting last week.

Administrator Gary Edom said during council’s regular meeting on Tuesday that the town needs to recover about $80,000 in its budget, following an unplanned string of street repairs caused by a high water table and subsequent frost boils.

“Our street repairs have just gone through the roof,” said Mayor Clayton Schneider, explaining that town needed to revisit the budget to find funding to “cover these surprises.”

Edom recommended that the town’s pavement budget be reduced from $200,000 to $120,000 for the current year, though he said this would sharply reduce the number of projects the town could afford to tackle.

“I think we’re just going to have to cut back as much as we can,” he said, explaining that he couldn’t find any other areas in the budget to target for reduction.

“We’ve had so darn much street work to do this year,” he told the Leader on Wednesday. “We’ll just have to play it by ear as we go.”

Edom said the town would still aim to resurface a couple of sections along First Street, including the two blocks from Washington Avenue to Garfield Street, and one block between Grant Street and Francis Street.

United Paving, based in Swift Current, has been recruited to complete the paving. Edom said the company had initially scheduled the work to begin June 1, but then came up against delays as employees finish the pavement at the Riverbend Co-op’s new service station on Highway 11.

Coun. Tyler Alexander remarked that if the water table continues to stay high in future years, council members may “have to revamp our whole thinking on it.”

In response to a query from Coun. Gerald Kenny, Edom noted that there had been very little wiggle room in the budget, with a budgeted surplus of $1,819.

By Joel van der Veen

DAVIDSON — In nine years of local ministry, Rev. F. Diane Eurig touched the lives of a lot of people, within the Davidson United Church congregation and beyond.

As Ian McCreary put it, “You got introduced to Diane as a minister . . . She very quickly became a friend for many.”

These friends filled the church’s basement hall on June 14 for a retirement social held in Eurig’s honour, featuring music, memories and plenty of laughs.

Eurig, who began serving the Davidson-Girvin pastoral charge in July 2006, preached her farewell sermon on Sunday, followed by a potluck meal and the social, which attracted a crowd of around 75 people. Cake and ice cream were served after the program.

McCreary and others spoke of her community outreach and how she provided effective leadership while remaining in the background much of the time.

“The key to great leadership was humility, and not needing to be the centre of attention,” said McCreary, who served as chair of the church’s ministry and personnel committee during Eurig’s tenure.

He likened her to the grinders on a hockey team and told her, “It’s your failure to need to be great that makes you great.”

The program began with a performance by the “kitchen band,” a group that leads regular singing with residents at the Davidson Health Centre.

Led by Sandra Zoerb and accompanied by pianist Norma McNabb, the group sang several old-time favourites. Eurig joined them on stage for their final song, a rousing performance of “Beer Barrel Polka.”

The Riecken sisters — Cheryl Riecken, Karen Edom, Donna Russell and Gloria Morrison — took the stage to perform two songs, including Mac Davis’s “I Believe in Music” and a rewrite of Paul Anka’s “Diana,” which became “Diane.”

Sharon Riecken read two selected poems about friendship, while Sylvia McConnell offered her own tribute poem, with adjectives describing Eurig written on brightly-coloured pieces of Bristol board.

Gord McRae expressed thanks on behalf of the local Royal Canadian Legion branch, presenting the gift of a red sweater. He explained that Eurig and others from the Davidson Inter-Church Association (DICA) were instrumental in keeping Remembrance Day services going as the Legion’s membership has declined.

McCreary read a letter from Pamela Thomas, personnel minister for the Saskatchewan Conference of the United Church, recalling the circumstances around Eurig’s arrival in Davidson.

The church’s pulpit was vacant after the departure of Rev. Nobuko Iwai, who had served as president of the Saskatchewan Conference, and Thomas said she had been worried about finding someone to fill her shoes.

None of the available interim ministers seemed like the right fit, but when Eurig appeared as a candidate, she displayed many of the gifts the church had sought in its next minister, including a passion for justice and pastoral care, and a heart for the community.

On behalf of the church, Gwen Allan presented Eurig with a painting by Anita Storey, depicting a prairie scene at sunset with a road leading into the distance.

Eurig spoke to the crowd at the program’s close, thanking them for the time she spent in Davidson.

“It certainly has been a joy,” she said, adding, “I’m not going far, and that’s the nice part of it.”

Eurig moved to Saskatoon last week, where she now resides with Adele and Beth Smillie, who are the mother and sister, respectively, of Davidson parishioner Mary Smillie.

Raised near Mount Forest, Ont., Eurig spent her earlier years farming but later returned to school, earning her B.A. in women’s studies at the University of Guelph, then completing a master’s degree of divinity at the Vancouver School of Theology in 2000.

She told the Leader in a previous interview that she had learned much through volunteering with Vancouver’s First United Church, helping sex trade workers in the East Hastings community.

After her ordination, she served the United Church congregation in Cabri for six years, then accepted the call in Davidson. Eurig turned 70 in December; her daughter Shelley and son-in-law Darek live in Calgary.

She said that Davidson has been “a wonderful home” where she has felt encouraged, respected and supported, and where she was conscious of the love of the congregation and community.

“There are many gifts and talents in this community,” she said. “They all work together to make this a vibrant church. . . It has been an honour to be here.”

Rev. Mathias Ross, currently serving the Grasslands pastoral charge in southwestern Saskatchewan, has accepted the call in Davidson and will begin his ministry here around July 15.

By Joel van der Veen

DAVIDSON — After years of delays, the company responsible for developing East Sellers Crescent has begun preparations to pave the street and install curbs, making the lots ready for construction.

In a press release issued earlier this month, Morsky Industrial Services Ltd. of Regina

said it planned to begin the asphalt paving and concrete curbs on the east side of the crescent in August.

However, Dwight Mercer told the Leader on June 12 that contractors had finished another project ahead of schedule, allowing them to begin work in Davidson this month. Surveying crews were on the site on Monday and work was underway shortly afterward.

Mercer, a consultant working on behalf of the Morsky company, said that now is the ideal time to move forward on the subdivision, thanks to a combination of factors.

He said the company sees that the recent industrial and commercial activity in the Davidson area as a sign of increased demand for new housing.

As well, the fall in oil prices has led in turn to lower prices for contracting the asphalt pavement, allowing Mercer to procure the work at a more reasonable cost, he said.

“We’ve been shopping around for three years,” he explained, adding that the “prices were from another world.”

“There’s an opportunity for us to get things all done now,” he continued. “Once we have the pavement and the curbs installed by August, I think things will pick up.”

The east side of the crescent contains a total of 18 residential lots. Two of these have already been sold and developed, while the other 16 remain for sale.

Town administrator Gary Edom welcomed the announcement, saying the development should be a significant boost in helping the lots to sell.

“That’s good news, as far as we’re concerned,” he said. “It’d be a welcome addition.”

Edom acknowledged that the news had been a long time coming. The subdivision has been in development for more than five years, but its progress has moved at a modest pace.

He said the town has been in contact with the Morsky company “periodically,” but added, “There hasn’t been much there to talk about.”

Mercer confirmed that the company has been in regular contact with the town, noting, “They’d like to see people moving in.”

The lots on East Sellers Crescent were originally defined in 1981, but it wasn’t until 2009 that the Morsky company entered an agreement with the town to develop and sell the lots.

With an average frontage of 60 feet, the lots reflect the approach of that era, Mercer said, noting that they stand in stark contrast to the smaller lots being sold in cities at much higher prices.

For the full story, please pick up the June 22 edition of The Davidson Leader.