A resurgence in “emergency” phone scams in the area has prompted the Craik detachment of the RCMP to warn residents to be alert about suspicious phone calls.

Craik RCMP Constable Kam Hay said the telephone scam making its way across the Craik detachment area has people phoning senior citizens posing as a nephew, niece, grandchild or other family member asking for money to help them out of a emergency situation. He said the fraudsters claim they have just been in a car collision or are having trouble returning from a foreign country or that the police arrested them and need money for bail.

“It seems to dupe a number of people,” said Hay, noting police would never request money to be sent to them in order to guarantee a release or dropping of charges. “I mean they feel stupid afterwards, but (the scammers) are convincing enough and…they’ll use all sorts of different stories. They’ll use a second party sometimes who is reported to be a lawyer. They’ll call back and they’ll play whatever game or tell them whatever they need to hear in order to get them to send money.”

Hay said to avoid becoming a victim of fraud people need to confirm who is on the other end of the phone line, not give out any personal information and don’t send money unless they know for sure who is really asking for it. He said this is not easy to do as the fraudsters mask their voice to sound similar to the person they claim to be or say their voice has been altered due to an accident or assault.

“In some cases they (provide personal information),” he said. “Whether they’re getting that information from social media is a possibility or (from) other sources, but in lots of instances they do know a little bit of a family background.”

The constable, who has been a member of the RCMP for about a decade, said the “emergency” phone scam has been around for years. He said it is re-emerging in the area as the detachment has received more complaints in the past few weeks with at least one recent confirmed victim.

To read more please see the December 23 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

A request from Dr. Abe Chaukla for $1,500 and approval to install electrical outlets at the end of the islands in the Davidson Dental building on Washington Avenue divided town council last Tuesday.

In a 4-3 vote, a motion by councillor Gerald Kenny to give Chaukla permission to install outlets at the end of the isles in the taxpayer owned building, but refuse him funding from the town to do so was passed.

It was learned at council that Chaukla initially approved the location of the outlets when viewing specifications of the building’s design while it was being renovated earlier this year. The vote means he can put in outlets at the ends of the islands now if he chooses, but he’ll have to pay for the work himself.

In other town council business discussed at the Dec. 17 meeting:

• Council passed a motion to borrow $160,000 to pay out two previous $80,000 loans, which then moves the borrowed money into one loan. The two $80,000 loans cover the purchase of the former CTRC building on Washington Avenue earlier this year and the subsequent renovations of the building to turn it into a medical services building. The town’s portion to buy and renovate the building actually came to $180,000, but they have already paid $20,000 of this off.

• Town hall complex rental rates are being increased effective Jan. 1. Every rental rate involved with the community centre including the auditorium, meeting rooms, kitchen, bar and miscellaneous items are being raised on average 60 to 65 per cent. For example, the current local rate of renting the auditorium for a supper and dance or dance/wedding is $200. Effective Jan. 1 that amount will go up to $300. Local rental rates are currently lower than outside rates and will remain so. An example is the current outside rate for a supper and dance or dance/wedding at the auditorium is $250. That will rise to $400. There are some exceptions to the rental rate increases as organizations that have long-term leases for the space and any bookings that are already done would still pay the current rental rates. Organizations that are not charged to rent the town hall complex such as Communities in Bloom, Fire Board and Donors Choice among a few others would continue to not have to pay.

• The wooden doors at the far side of the auditorium are being replaced at a cost of $2,500 plus taxes and costs to install the new doors. This is being done because the current doors do not close properly allowing cold air into the auditorium. A generator is also being installed at the town hall that would provide a backup power supply to the town hall building. The costs of both of the projects come to around $40,000. A portion of this cost is coming from an unused federal government grant that was previously earmarked to go towards the installation of an air conditioner in the town hall auditorium. As heard at the town council meeting the air conditioner has been “kyboshed.” The costs of installing the air conditioning unit and the expense involved with replacing the doors and putting in a generator amount to roughly the same.

Interested students at Chief Kahkewistahaw Community School made major strides in the game of basketball last month thanks to a clinic run by a few Davidson School students and one graduate.

Grade 12 students Kim Baldwin and Matthias McCreary joined up with Grade 11s Jill Rettger and Grade 10 kids Tina Stone, Cheyanne Nordmarken, Huck Rettger, Sydney Booker and Gabe Ebenal along with 2012 Davidson School graduate Sydney Willner to run the Nov. 29 and 30 basketball clinic at Chief Kahkewistahaw Community School (CKCS). During the clinic the Davidson School kids imparted their knowledge of dribbling, shooting, basic defensive and offensive plays and the rules of the game to the group of aspiring players.

“Volleyball is a really big thing in (Kahkewistahaw),” Kim said. “The principal (Evan Taypotat), who interned here a couple years ago so we know him pretty well, was trying to get basketball started in their community, so they wanted a couple kids who had been playing basketball for a while (to help).”

Kim said they first received notice Taypotat hoped to get a basketball clinic going when he approached Tony and Sandra Baldwin in late October when the Raiders senior girls volleyball team were playing in a CKCS tournament. She said Sandra then organized how the clinic would operate before asking a few kids if they’d like to go and they were all for it.

“The first day and part of the second day we split everyone up and went over basics,” Kim said. “Then at the end of the second day we had a scrimmage, so we split the kids into two teams and they just played and some of our students played and me and Matthias coached the teams. It was really fun.”

Jill said the Davidson kids were able to show the CKCS students “little tricks” how to approach plays in a different way during the clinic. She said they were also able to give them a quick lesson what to do at different moments in a game.

“They got really good,” said Tina. “Everything they got pretty good at, but they were originally pretty good.”

Tina said this was the first time the Davidson School students have ever done anything like this before, but they would take part in coaching another clinic if given the chance.

Kim said they planned on conducting the basketball clinic at Kahkewistahaw for free, but their good will was rewarded by the generosity of CKCS students at the end of the second day to their complete surprise.

“We had lunch with them the second day (and) they supplied breakfast for us,” she said. “They also gave us all gifts. They gave us all a (CKCS) t-shirt, a pad and a pen and $40. It was really cool.”

Herman Crescent resident Pat Rhodes is asking anyone who lost Christmas decorations from outside their home to contact her, as they may be the ones she found spread around her property.

“We found some laying in the street in front of our house then we found more laying in the alley behind our house,” said Rhodes about her Dec. 4 and 5 discoveries. “The one in the front was the Abominable Snowman and he was claimed and then in the back there was a candle and a couple strings of lights and one of those white spirals…they’re supposed to look like a Christmas tree when you stand them up. Then there was three light-up gifts with a star and another set of lights attached to it.”

Rhodes said the candle and one string of lights was claimed by the United Church and returned, but the Christmas tree spiral, the gift bags and a string of blue LED lights is still in their possession. She said all the lights are still in working order and nothing seems too damaged.

“We’ve had some people phone asking about reindeer, but nope there wasn’t any reindeer,” she said. “So there was more (decorations stolen around town) and I guess the Catholic Church had some stolen too, but they found theirs by the school.”

Rhodes said there hasn’t been any mention to her of anyone else around town who found missing decorations. She said the job right now is just to get these ones back to their rightful owner before Christmas comes.

“It’s just they’re here for whomever that they belong to to come and claim them.”

The largest crop in Saskatchewan’s history and record yields all across Western Canada has resulted in some strains in grain being moved by trains this fall, but when taken in perspective everything is going smoothly.

Derrick Vetter, general manager of Cargill Ltd. in Davidson, said local producers have had “pretty good crops” the past four or five years while other parts of Western Canada have suffered through wet land, problems seeding or the crop just not coming in as big. He said this year is different as there are big crops spread out all across Western Canada.

“We’ve been lucky and maybe a little bit spoiled the last couple years when we’ve had good crops and good quantity and good quality, so we’ve been probably able to get a little bit more than our fair share when we talk (about) our local marketplace here, between the two cities and either end between the lakes,” said Vetter. “Now that this year when everybody has lots of quantity and for the most part the same quality it’s just getting spread out over a much bigger geography.”

Last week Statistics Canada estimated Saskatchewan’s 2013 crop is 38.4 million tonnes, which is 40 per cent above 2012 production and 48 per cent above the 10-year average. It further indicates this province’s canola crop is estimated to the largest on record at 8.9 million tonnes, an increase of 37.5 per cent over 2012. Production levels for wheat, canola, peas, lentils, chickpeas, oats and flax are all estimated to be above the 10-year average.

Vetter said this has resulted in a bit of a delay in grains being moved by trains, but it’s more company specific and they are “probably not” experiencing much of one. He said they still have a little bit of October grain to move, but for the most part they’re fairly current.

“When we’ve actually started looking into as far as trains running this year versus previous years, other than the month of October for us, we’re probably ahead of where we typically would be this time of year as far as shipping by rail,” he said. “It’s one of those things. There is lots of talk about the doom and gloom, (but) I think if people were to look at the stats it’s maybe not as bad as what the perception is out there.”

A Canadian Grain Commission release last week showed exports of Western Canadian grain to be higher this year to date compared to data from the same time last year and the five-year average. It states the volume of grain shipped by producer cars is also higher than at the same time last year.

As of Nov. 24, the Canadian Grain Commission states 5.1 million tonnes of wheat and 2.3 million tonnes of canola have been exported this crop year. The five-year average for exports of wheat by this time is 3.9 million tonnes and for canola 1.8 million tonnes.

That means 2013 exports have seen a 31 per cent increase in wheat exports and a 28 per cent increase in canola exports compared to the five-year average. This amounts to Western Canadian producers shipping 105,700 tonnes of wheat and 5,500 tonnes of canola to terminal elevators by producer car, while in the 2012-2013 crop year producers shipped 64,600 tonnes of wheat and 5,300 tonnes of canola to terminal elevators by this time.

To read more please see the December 9 print edition of The Davidson Leader.