Over 300 snow-machines are going to roar into Hawarden later this month and anyone with a sled or who just likes to check them out is invited to head over too.

The Feb. 22 snow-machine rally that starts at Hawarden Hall is part of the 14^th Annual Garry Jess Memorial, which is put on each year by the Hawarden Winter Warriors. The Warriors are a local snowmobile club that gets together a few times each year to raise funds for community projects and local families in need.

“All the funds and proceeds from (the Garry Jess Memorial) we either will put back into the local hall right in Hawarden or donate it to a family or to somebody who needs some money that we know of as a club,” said Dean Blenkinsop, acting president of the Hawarden Winter Warriors. “We’ve already given quite a bit to the Strongfield Hall to help them pay the bills and stuff. It all stays local.”

Blenkinsop said the Garry Jess Memorial usually attracts around 300 snowmobiles each year including 65 to 70 vintage models for a snowmobile show and shine and snowmobile run. He said another group of six to eight snowplanes also come out to provide free rides for anyone who wants to go.

“The older sleds come and we have a short run for them, like a 20-mile run out to a hot dog stand and we get together there and have a hot dog and pop,” he said. “Then for the new sleds that come and want to go for a little longer ride we have another trail made up for them and it goes approximately 60 miles. We work it out so the new sleds can stop where the old ones are on a local farm outside of town, like 6 miles outside of town, and everybody meets there. Then the new ones continue on and the older sleds come back into town and meet at the hall again.”

There will also be “lots of prizes” given out during the festivities for everything from oldest rider and oldest sled to the most unique and the most popular. Blenkinsop said an all-day lunch would also be served at the hall along with refreshments all afternoon and evening.

“We try and keep it as least expensive as possible for the people to come out and ride,” he said. “If they want to come out and just look at the snowplanes and snowmobiles, that’s totally free of charge. We like all people to come out and just look at all the stuff. There are some very unique things that show up with some of these older sleds. It starts at 11 a.m. and we end usually at 11 p.m. and it’s an all around fun time.”

Saskatchewan credit unions and their supporters have one week left to voice their concerns to the provincial government about a possible change to the tax regime that would severely harm a credit union’s ability to remain competitive with Canada’s big banks.

Lise de Moissac, senior vice president and chief financial officer at Affinity Credit Union, said the level of taxation currently in place in Saskatchewan has credit unions at an effective tax rate that is similar to their big bank competitors. She said this would change if the provincial government follows through with a change to the credit union’s tax regime similar to the federal government change announced in their 2013 budget.

“Because our province aligns itself with federal changes to taxation it had to do something,” said de Moissac. “They had to make a decision to either make no change and disconnect federally or to follow the feds and they chose for the 2013 year to leave the rate alone, but as we’re going into a provincial budget (the Saskatchewan government) intimated to us that they would re-look at all rates to taxation across all businesses.”

de Moissac said they are not expecting a change to the tax regime, but they are just making sure they are doing a good job of letting the province know as they go into their budget conversations what a 10 per cent tax increase that could amount to an additional $3 million in tax would do to their business.

“Anytime we have to pay more tax we really see it as an additional expense, so any tax increases reduce our credit union’s bottom line and in turn reduce our equity,” she said. “If we’re going to weather a tax increase we have to make up that bottom line somehow and some of the ways we would make up that bottom line loss would be to decrease our services, (so) to reduce the time and the money that we’re currently giving back to our communities, which is considerable. It could mean a loss of jobs and it would certainly mean decreased stability to compete with the banks.”

To try and stop this, de Moissac said they and all other credit unions in the province are asking credit union members along with the wider community to sign a petition to let the provincial government know that they want to maintain the current rate of tax. She said in addition to the petition they are hoping community organizations, credit union members and businesses would also send a pre-printed postcard or letter template to the Saskatchewan Minister of Finance and their individual MLAs expressing their support of credit unions.

“If they wanted to find that template it is online at saskcu.com or at affinitycu.ca and the deadline for that is Feb. 14, Valentine’s Day, so I suppose if you are in love with the credit union system in this province we would really urge people to take up the call to action and make sure that they make their voice heard.”

A growing number of hockey players in town will stop heading over to the curling lobby to dress for games this week because a new girl’s change room has opened at the Davidson Rink.

Trevor Ouellette, recreation director for Davidson, said the town spent $1,000 to remake the janitor’s room next to the washrooms at the rink into a girl’s change room. He said there were four dressing rooms and one restroom and the younger age boys and girls are allowed to change together, but once the kids get a bit older they want their own room making a need for the new addition.

“For our bantam team, the girls actually (went) onto the curling side and changed in the curling dressing room and then they walk in their socks carrying their skates and helmet over to our dressing room where the boys are dressed and they put their skates on there,” said Ouellette. “They should have their own room. It’s something that I’ve always tried to address, but it just takes money to do something properly. You don’t want to just throw them into a dark (and) dingy janitor’s room and give them a chair, so we’re going to spend a little bit of money, lay some proper flooring and put them in a well-lit area. It’s still going to be a separate room, but at least it’s better than having to walk through a lobby in their socks.”

Ouellette said something had to be done about the situation even though there haven’t been many complaints raised to him from players and parents. He said this new setup would still be a janitor’s room, but at least it’ll give the girls someplace now that’s private.

“It’s something that has probably been building for a while,” he said. “It probably should have been done last year, but we just decided ‘you know what let’s get it done now.'”

Doug Palmer, ice technician at the Davidson Rink, said work on the new room began last Monday and took around four days to complete. He said they started by moving the old storage into the upstairs storeroom before putting the mats down and then bringing in some benches and shelving.

“When we run into troubles is when there is two games back-to-back and basically you’ve got all four dressing rooms being used and there is no room for the girls to change,” said Palmer, noting the corner “L” shaped bench being put in should seat four players comfortably creating a space for the girls in town who play on these older teams.

Davidson councillor Jason Shaw said Hockey Canada and Saskatchewan Hockey Association (SHA) policy regarding gender accommodation requires two separate rooms for boys and girls once they reach pee-wee age (11 years old). He said there hasn’t been any bantam or midget teams in town for a few years, so there wasn’t really a need to do this until now.

To read more please see the February 3 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

The Craik detachment of the RCMP and Saskatchewan Government Insurance (SGI) are teaming up to remind local motorists to take steps to prevent thieves from breaking into or stealing their vehicle.

Kelley Brinkworth, SGI manager of media relations, said there are “some really simple” and “pretty obvious” ways for people to stop vehicle theft. She said these include shutting windows tightly, locking all doors, removing valuables from a vehicle such as spare change, parking in a well-lit area, installing an alarm or using a theft prevention device such as The Club and never leaving a vehicle running while unattended even if it is locked.

“It has a lot to do with the convenience factor,” said Brinkworth about never leaving a vehicle running while unattended. “In the winter it’s so cold out and (people) probably think ‘OK, well I can just run into a store here and come back to my nice warm vehicle,’ but it’s just an additional risk there. It’s more easy access for a thief.”

According to SGI statistics on vehicle thefts in Saskatchewan, the number of stolen vehicles has actually gone down every year after a five-year high of 2,395 vehicle thefts were reported in 2011, but that doesn’t mean people should be any less vigilant. SGI still received more than 1,900 claims for stolen vehicles in 2013 resulting in a cost of close to $10 million.

Craik RCMP constable Ian Smith said the majority of vehicle thefts and break-ins in this area usually begin when keys are left somewhere in a vehicle.

“The most common crime around here comes from transients,” said Smith. “They look for vehicles that have keys in them. They’ll search everywhere in the vehicle for keys.”

Brinkworth said leaving possessions in a vehicle that are visible to someone walking by also gives a would-be thief incentive to try something. She said never leave suitcases, golf clubs or electronic equipment such as a laptops or even a collection of cds laying out in plain view.

“If a thief can’t see it then they might not think there is anything, so what is the point of breaking in, but if they can see it out there it’s just something that makes it a little harder to resist,” said Brinkworth. “So why risk it?”