Category Archives: Davidson

Davidson

Co-op cleanup

The Affinity Credit Union and Co-op Association celebrated the International Year of the Cooperative last week by helping clean up the Town of Davidson.

The Riverbend Co-op raked, weeded and picked up garbage at the Davidson Campground, while staff at the Credit Union did their part by cleaning up the Centennial Legacy Trail, the Senior Citizen’s Centre, the Bob Crowley Memorial Gardens and Arnold Park.

Tyler Pisiak, branch manager of the Credit Union, who helped out by weeding at Arnold Park, said the cleanup is an initiative by the Davidson co-ops to help their community who support them by buying memberships. He said co-ops around the province are taking part in the first ever-International Year by choosing their own way to celebrate it and their area.

“The International (Year of the Co-op) is more in recognition of the cooperatives around the province,” said Pisiak. “I guess one of the principles behind the cooperatives is giving back to the community. Why we’re doing this is we’re trying to just bring attention to what we do and that we’re a little bit different in that regard in that we like to give back to the community.”

Marie Nadeau, financial supervisor of the Davidson Branch of Affinity Credit Union, said the main idea behind the cleanup was “if we work together, we can do better for our communities.” She said in recognition of this members of Affinity got together and with a little push in the right direction by Communities in Bloom and the Town of Davidson they decided to get to work sprucing up the various gardens and parks.

“When we talked to Communities in Bloom, they said they have a girl hired for the job to water and weed, but there is so many areas that she can’t really dig in and do the nitty-gritty,” said Nadeau. “They gave us a few spots that they thought would be a good place to go and then the town said maybe clean up the park.

“They thought that would be a good idea and we were all for it. It’s the weeding and stuff, so that’s what we decided to do.”

Donna Russell, marketing coordinator at the Credit Union, who took part in cleaning up the flower gardens at Centennial Legacy Trail, said she was happy to complete some “community service” in celebration of the International Year of the Co-op. She said there are cooperatives all over the world and doing things like this brings attention to the gratitude co-ops have for the people who support them.

Davidson

Clarence Torguson, Nov. 28, 1932 – June 24, 2012.

It is with great sadness that the family of Clarence Torguson, age 79, announce his peaceful passing at the Luther Special Care Home on Sunday, June 24, 2012, with his loving wife by his side. Clarence is survived by his loving wife Gerry; sister Lorraine Austman; brother Wes Torguson; brother-in-law Bill (Carol) Wick; sister-in-law Lorraine (Gerry) Cooper, numerous nieces and nephews and other family members and friends. He was predeceased by his parents Jens and Aago Torguson; sister Anne Leonard and brother-in-law Stan Austman; father- and mother-in-law Olaf and Elizabeth Wick.

A very special thank you to all the special care givers on second floor at Luther Special Care Home for all the loving and extra special care given to Clarence.

The celebration of Clarence’s life funeral service was held on Friday, June 29, 2012 at 10:00 a.m. from the Hanley Centennial hall, Hanley, Sask. with Rev. Andrew Appledore officiating.

Interment in the family plot, Hanley Cemetery, Hanley, Sask.

For friends so wishing memorials in memory of Clarence may be directed to the Hanley United Church fund or to the Sask. Alzheimer’s Association.

Hanson’s Funeral Home, Davidson, Sask. in care of arrangements.

Davidson, featured

Primary-care model needed to cure what’s ailing rural medicine

Dr. Francisco Lang needs help. The number of patients that are walking through his doors at the Davidson Family Practice seeking assistance along with those coming to emergency services at the Davidson Health Centre are increasing every day and he simply can’t keep up.

Lang said this growth in problems that he is dealing with is due to the “migration of doctors” in nearby communities to group practices in bigger centres such as Saskatoon or Regina or even to other provinces. The fact that these patients are coming from different health regions other than Heartland Health is of no importance.

“As a result, there is an accumulation of the need for medical services here and you immediately realize that you are not enough to support and satisfy those expectations from the community,” said Lang. “It’s not that the community gets more illnesses; it’s not that the community is losing their healthy status. It’s simply that the volume and the problems around the communities are getting more complicated. This reason is why in rural communities or small communities, sole practitioners disappear.”

The Davidson Family Practice has seen a steady increase in patients since the doctor in Imperial left a few years ago and is likely to get a huge boost when Dr. Narinda Maree leaves for Moose Jaw at the beginning of August. Emergency services at the Davidson Health Centre have also seen a wide growth and will continue to do so considering all emergency services run out of Craik will now be shifted to Davidson when their doctor leaves.

Lang said a new primary-care model is needed to fix this situation or the same result will occur where a sole practitioner simply burns out. He said a team of doctors is needed to cover such a large area with two ideally placed in Davidson and a third operating out of Craik with basic emergency services at a minimum in that town.

“Patients do not consider the boundaries to move around to get medical services that are needed,” he said in reference to the existence of the different health care regions. “As such, a doctor in a community may not consider those boundaries either in terms of geographical division. Medically, I find it inappropriate for me to not treat a patient from Craik just based on the fact that patient belongs to another health region.”

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

Davidson

Bylaw controls use of fireworks

The days of impromptu late night fireworks displays in Davidson have come to an end.

At its meeting last Tuesday, Davidson town council passed a bylaw to control the use of fireworks within town limits.

From now on, no one may discharge fireworks within the town except for special occasions and with prior written consent from town council. As well, no one in town may sell fireworks to children under the age of 18.

Town administrator Gary Edom said council decided to adopt a fireworks bylaw because people are buying them in town and the town had requests from people asking if they could set some off in town, so council decided to pass a bylaw controlling their use.

The bylaw legislates where and how people may use fireworks and it gives town officials or the fire chief authority to suspend fireworks displays deemed dangerous to the public or property.

Covered in the bylaw are all types of fireworks including squibs, firecrackers, rockets, torpedoes, roman candles, sparklers and other pyrotechnics of all description.

If people violate provisions within the bylaw they are subject to fines set out in the town’s General Penalty Bylaw and could be liable to a fine of up to $2,000 for an individual and of up to $5,000 for a corporation.

Davidson, featured

CTRC to close Davidson campus

The Carleton Trail Regional College (CTRC) is closing its Davidson campus “around” July 20, but any services that are required by residents of Davidson can still be accessed through a different location, according to the CTRC interim CEO.

“The activity in Davidson was not as active as the other campuses were,” said Bill Cooke, referring to the small number of students who use the school compared to the campuses at Southey, Watrous, Wynyard and Humboldt and the limited number of instructors willing to teach at Davidson.

“We have fixed resources. Frankly, we don’t have any more money to do anything differently (than close the campus), so we have to work within what we have.

“With the building closing, it doesn’t make a whole lot of difference to the provision of services,” he said. “Any services needed in Davidson can be provided through Southey, it can be provided through Watrous or it can be provided in some sort of unique way. This is really making do with what are becoming quite limited resources.”

The CTRC is involved with upgrading basic adult education as well as credited trades programs such as emergency medical services (EMS), carpentry, plumbing and electrical as well as non-credit programs like photography and gardening.

Mary Jane Morrison, the mayor of Davidson, said she was not consulted prior to hearing from Cooke on June 21 that the campus would be closing. She said the town would fight to keep services in Davidson and will keep all lines of communication open to remain a voice in discussions to keep some programs here.

“I think it’s a real loss for our community,” said Morrison adding some jobs would be lost because of this decision, not to mention the harm done to mature students who don’t have the time to get to other campuses after their day jobs. “It’s always nice to provide that post-secondary education here, so people wouldn’t have to travel.

“When he told me they were closing, he said the numbers were down in Davidson. I understood that from some of the research that was done; however, I said that I didn’t agree. First of all, I don’t know how hard they tried to deliver a variety of programming here. At earlier times, there was a better job done at that.  I tried to point out a few things like Davidson is a growing community and there are a few classes here that they had taken away (that were well used).

“When he delivered the news to me, I said I wouldn’t keep Davidson out of the loop in the future,” she said.  “We mean that.”

To read more please see the July 2 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

Davidson

Kenny Memorial Golf Tourney to raise funds for new pool

The Lyndon Kenny Memorial Golf Tournament is taking place this weekend at the Davidson Golf Course with all proceeds raised going to the new Davidson Swimming Pool fund.

Kelsi Kenny, Lyndon’s sister, said the tourney was put together because the family just wanted to do something to help benefit the town and with all the new families moving into Davidson, the swimming pool seemed like the ideal target. She said that a golf tournament was also the perfect way to remember her brother who passed away late last fall.

“We’re doing it as a chance to celebrate his life and do something that we all enjoy doing together,” Kelsi said. “He liked to golf and we all like to golf together as a family and we thought that would be a fun way to do that.”

Kelsi said they hope to raise around $4,000 at the golf course July 7, matching the amount raised for the Canadian Mental Health Association (Saskatchewan Division) this past winter through a charity poker tournament held in Lyndon’s name.

She said in addition to the tourney there will also be a silent auction featuring signed NHL jerseys, Carrie Underwood tickets and a harvest meal for up to 20 people. A hole-in-one challenge will also award two $20,000 prizes sponsored by Norman Sagen Insurance in Davidson and Al Hoffman Insurance in Kenaston.

“A lot of people have registered so far and we’ve got a lot of people that are talking about coming and wanting to donate prizes, so we’ve had a really great response,” she said. “I think that maybe we would like to keep this golf tournament going on as a yearly thing, either to raise money for the swimming pool or whatever is in need at that time in that year.”

Roy Kenny, Lyndon’s father, said the community was so sympathetic to the family at the passing that they decided they needed to do something to give back. He said the idea for a golf tournament came about because of Lyndon’s love of the game and of working at the course.

The memorial tourney will be limited to 72 golfers, putting eight people to a hole on the nine-hole course. Roy said the spots are filling up fast, but no one will be turned away if they do get more than 72 asking to participate.

“We’re just hoping that people come out and have some fun,” Roy said. “It’s going to have three different categories. We’re going to have two person scrambles, men’s teams, mixed teams and ladies’ teams. It’s going to be slow, but we just want people to come out and have fun. It helps the golf course and the clubhouse too and maybe we can raise a little money out of it hopefully.”