The Resort Village of Etters Beach is trying to stave off the potential of flooding this spring by leaning on the knowledge they gained two years ago.

Michele Cruise-Pratchler, administrator for Etters Beach, said the village has not had any flooding issues yet this spring, but the provincial Water Security Agency (WSA) has warned them there is potential for it due to the high water level on Last Mountain Lake. She said as a result the village is now in the process of building a berm and a drainage ditch to address the problem should it occur.

“The (WSA) April forecast was for a high water level of about 18 inches less than it was in 2011, which would put us in jeopardy,” said Cruise-Pratchler. “There should be a new forecast shortly and we’ll get a little better read on what they’re thinking as far as lake levels. At this point, we’re sort of in a wait and see mode for what may or may not be high water.”

Cruise-Pratchler said over the next couple weeks a contractor would be preparing the village for the possibility of flooding with funding support for the project coming from the WSA Emergency Flood Damage Reduction Program. She said the equipment is on site and workers began digging the ditch last Wednesday.

“Generally water that comes from the west sort of works its way right through the village, so we’re constructing a drainage ditch to divert it around the village,” she said. “Then we’re putting a section of berm up along the water shoreline side that will help to make the entire shoreline level 492 metres above sea level, which was the high water flood level of 2011.”

The reconstruction of the Etters Beach community recreation facility that was supposed to be completed this spring is still going ahead as planned, said Cruise-Pratchler. She said as soon as the weather warms up they will start work on the outdoor structure, which was damaged in the 2011 flood, and it would be ready for use this summer.

The Town of Davidson is putting out a call for volunteers to help them host the Saskatchewan Twilite Baseball Maxi Tournament July 5 to 7.

Davidson councillor Jason Shaw said the annual men’s tournament could bring 600 people to town over the weekend and volunteer help is needed to perform duties at the tournament including grounds crew, announcer and scorekeeper positions along with diamond preparations crew before the event starts. Shaw said if anyone is interested in one of these positions or would like to help out in any way to come see him at his office on Washington Avenue or give him a call.

“We’re probably going to put a Davidson team together too if we have enough people that are interested,” said Shaw. “If anybody that wants to play that I haven’t talked to, they can give me a call.”

The Saskatchewan Twilite Baseball Maxi Tournament is an over-35 men’s baseball event that travels across the province each summer bringing together sport enthusiasts who enjoy getting together each year to play the game. The tournament, now in its 37^th year, consists of 21 to 24 teams comprised of 12 to 18 players each who play two round-robin games on the Friday and Saturday before heading into playoff action with games played Saturday afternoon and all-day Sunday.

Shaw said there should be around 40 games being played over the three days at Davidson’s three ball diamonds and local people who would like to come and watch can do so at no charge. He said the ballplayers from each team and their families would be staying in town over the weekend, either at the campground or in hotels, so businesses in Davidson will see a boom in sales over the three days.

“The benefit for the town is there will be a lot of people buying groceries, using the Liquor Store, local businesses, restaurants and that kind of stuff,” he said, noting the last time Davidson played host to the tournament was in 2009. “It’s an older group and their kids and (spouses) will be here. It’s kind of a yearly reunion for these teams where they get together, have a few drinks and play a little ball. Some teams are serious and some are not.”

To read more please see the May 6 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

Robertson, Don

Robert Donald Robertson was born on, May 31, 1923, at, Saskatoon, Sask., to Robert and Antoinette Robertson. He was the second of two sons.

Don completed his grade twelve education at Luther College in Regina. He also attended the College of Engineering at the University of Saskatchewan. He enlisted with the Royal Canadian Signal Corp in the armed forces in 1943. He was lance corporal with the Canadian Postal Corp in the North West Europe German occupation army. This took him overseas where he met, Joyce Holt, from, Manchester, England. After the Second World War, Don and Joyce were married on the farm at Liberty on, August 1st, 1948. They had two children, Bob and Elaine. Don enjoyed music and loved to play the piano with his friends in the Liberty Orchestra. Liberty Orchestra was a fixture in Liberty and played many gigs, as Don would say. The last gig being his granddaughter, Tamara’s wedding in 2007.

Don worked diligently for the National Farmers Union. Miles of Saskatchewan roads were travelled, meetings attended and farmers visited. He worked alongside his friend, Elmer Laird, for the Back to the Farm Research Foundation. He was a member of The Liberty Optimist Club, The Masons and the Canadian Legion. He was a member of the United Church.

Joyce passed away in 1967 and Don lived alone for 11 years until finding a wonderful friend and companion, Juliette Thorson, who also was widowed. Don and Julie were married in 1982. This greatly enlarged Don’s family as Julie brought seven adult children into the family, James, Richard, John, Mary, Lori, Thomas and Peter. The amazing thing about Don and Julie was that everyone was included. All grandchildren were mutually enjoyed and shared. The clan grew to thirty grandchildren and twenty-four plus great-grandchildren.

Don and Julie shared great times together. When life got too busy watching the grandchildren, Don would say, it’s time that we got away! They would usually drive to the coast, visiting relatives along the way. Julie passed away suddenly on, April 12th 2004. Don has stayed busy helping his son, Bob, on the farm, gardening, with his children and grandchildren and playing music with his friends over the past nine years. He lived in his own home right up until this past Christmas.

In January he moved to Long Lake Valley Integrated Facility where he passed away on April 17th. He courageously fought prostate cancer, macular degeneration in his eyes and heart issues over the past two years. He lived a rich, full life and he will be greatly missed. Don was predeceased by his parents, Rob and Nettie, his brother Bill, sister-in-law Ruby, his wife Joyce, his wife Julie, a stepson Richard and nephew Arnold. Left to mourn are, Bob Robertson and Elaine (Barry) Webster, Carey (Joel) Hyndman, Jody (Mark) Fitzpatrick, Scott (Lindsay) Robertson, Aaron Webster, Joel (Alesha) Webster, Tamara (Jeff) Benjamin, Daniel Webster, Jim (Kelly) Thorson, Penny Thorson, John (Jackie) Thorson, Mary (Dave) Ross, Lori (Bill) Sproule, Thomas (Terry) Thorson, Peter (Cheryl) Thorson, Jeremy (Trudy) Thorson, Daniel (Angela) Thorson, Nicole Thorson, Jessica (Rodd) Zoerb, Chris (Sarah) Thorson, Brian Thorson, Katie (Jarrod) Carr, Michele (Jason) Ulsifer, Deonne (Stan) Hrynyk, Adam (Kathryn) Thorson, Andrea (Lonny) Setrum, Bobbi (Rob) Burford, Tony Ross, Randi (Chris) Strunk, Kerry (Darcy) Boyle, Robert Sproule, Patrick Sproule, Krystal Thorson, Vanessa Thorson, Michael Thorson, Evan Thorson, Ashley Thorson, and Matthew Thorson.

A funeral service for Don was held Sat. April 27, 2 p.m. at Liberty Memorial Hall
Liberty SK., Officiant – Pastor Paul Gosslin – Pallbearers – Scott Robertson, Joel Webster, Daniel Webster, Daniel Thorson, Adam Thorson, Evan Thorson, Tributes – Aaron Webster, Carey Hyndman, Chris Thorson, Register Attendants – Elaine Wille, Caroline Wolff, Usher – Eugene Wolff, Craig Wille, Scripture Reader – Lori Sproule, Soloist – Alesha Webster, Pianist – Brenda Robinson, Tribute Slideshow – Jessica Zoerb, Trumpet – The Last Post, Alana Gosslin, Private Famliy Interment – Liberty Cemetery

For those so wishing donations to Long Lake Valley Foundation, Box 94, Imperial, SK, S0G 2J0 would be appreciated. For online condolences and tributes, or to make a donation please visit www.fotheringham-mcdougall.com

The Town of Davidson is considering the idea of opening the Communiplex to skateboarders, ball hockey players and rollerbladers among other fitness enthusiasts this summer as a way to keep residents active.

Trevor Ouellette, recreation director for Davidson, said opening the Communiplex to summer activities is a way to make better use of the centre. He said having the facility open 10 months a year instead of the usual six gives residents more options in terms of recreation while also getting more service out of the building.

“It’s not going to be any type of revenue generation (for the town), but still if we can get the users in there just to use it then it provides more to the public,” said Ouellette, noting this change is not in place yet and still has to be discussed and passed by town council.

The Communiplex is available for rent during the summer months at a minimum charge, but Ouellette said this change would open the facility to any fitness club members who would like to use the rink surfaces without an additional charge. He said the idea is to have the rink surfaces open to anyone with a fitness club membership, so they may be able to choose between using the gym equipment at the fitness centre or taking their exercise routine to the rink surfaces.

“If you’re a skateboarder and you have no interest in the fitness side, but you still want to go two to three times a week (to the Communiplex), it’ll still be $25 for the month,” he said.

Skateboarders, for example, could bring their own equipment such as halfpipes and rails onto the Communiplex rink surface this summer to take advantage of the level and smooth concrete if they have a fitness club membership if this change passes. The only demand from the town would be the users have to remove the equipment and clean up after themselves when they’re done.

“If you want to make some rails or whatever, we’re willing,” said Ouellette. “As long as you respect the facility, you’re not damaging it and you clean up after yourself.”

The Town of Davidson recreation board will come to a final decision on whether to open the Communiplex to summer users at their board meeting in the first week of May.

Coming to a realization that you must seize the day and not sweat the small stuff is the basis of the new school play, “Yolo,” showcased by the Davidson School senior drama club this past week.

“Yolo” is a collective play written by the club who also stage and star in the production. They performed the play before a packed house in the Davidson School gym last Tuesday night for dinner theatre before bringing it on the road to Drama Festival in Unity April 19 and 20.

Jasmine Smith, stage manager with the senior drama club, said the group started the process of writing the play last October, beginning with character development before moving on to the plot and setting.

“It was a lot harder than we ever imagined,” Jasmine said, noting they received a lot of help from their director Arlene Low throughout the process. “It started with The Big Bang Theory as basically our skeleton and then we added to each of those characters to make the casting of the people who were playing them have their personality show.

“We had Matthias (McCreary), so we took his character and we thought ‘how could we make Matthias turn into this character and give him mannerisms that Matthias would have on stage.'”

Matthias, who plays Lance in “Yolo,” said modelling the characters after themselves made it a “little easier to act” their parts on stage. He said the most difficult part about writing their own play was trying to “fit in” all the ideas they wanted to express.

Brad Brazeau, who plays the character Stanley, said the club was strictly writing the play for the first two months of production. He said they started to put it together on stage in January, which also gave them a chance to fill in any blanks in the script that they came across during rehearsals.

“It was something that not many of us have tried before,” Brad said, “so it was definitely a fun experience.”

To read more please see the April 29 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

Prairie dogs and burrowing owls have become the muse of young artists at the Davidson Playschool.

Through a recently awarded $4,180 Creative Partnerships Exploration grant, the playschool has brought in Derek Pho, a Saskatoon visual artist, to help the two-, three- and four-year-old students create their own prairie dogs and burrowing owls through papier maché artworks.

Pho made his first visit to the school last Thursday for a session with the kids. During the morning art class with the pre-three students, Pho directed them into filling brown paper bags with other paper to make it into a full rectangular object. The students were then helped to wrap the piece in masking tape.

Pho said he and playschool volunteer Terra Fazakas along with teachers Angela Fahlman and Trudi Smith would then work with the kids to create a prairie dog by covering it with papier maché on his next visit to the pre-three class April 30.

“Being younger students, we hope to help them with the tasks to accomplish the project,” said Pho.

The toddler group will enjoy two visits from Pho for their artwork, while the three-year-olds will have three visits from the artist in making the prairie dogs and the four-year-olds will have five visits in making burrowing owls.

“This will be group art and not just individual,” he said, noting the completed pieces will be displayed as a whole and permanent structure to the public by June. “We’ll just see how it forms together. All the pieces will be involved in some way.”

The Creative Partnership Exploration grant is given out to explore how visual arts can enhance environmental awareness within the classroom, which makes the choice of the prairie dog and the burrowing owl perfect for the project, said Pho.

“The prairie dog is a local animal to Saskatchewan and the burrowing owl is an endangered animal,” he said. “Also we’ll be using as many recycled resources as possible with the project because we’re interested in a sustainable environment.”

In addition to the art classes, the playschool will welcome the burrowing owl centre to the classroom May 9 who will give the students a lesson in the life of the species as well as bring a few live birds into the classroom for the students to see.