DAVIDSON—Ever since a huge DQ Grill and Chill sign went up on Highway 11 Trevor Dieno has had to turn away potential customers.
The much-anticipated restaurant isn’t open for business, but it will be very soon.
“We feel terrible people walk in and we can’t serve them. All day and every day, pretty much since the sign went up,” Dieno says of the steady stream of people who stop for a tasty treat.
The sign, which at 45 square feet is the largest DQ sign in North America, acts as a beacon to the travelling public.
If the weather co-operates, meaning it doesn’t rain much, and the contractor can pave the parking area, Dieno projects the Grill and Chill will be open for business the second week of October.
This will be sweet news to many.
To read more about the DQ Grill & Chill at Davidson, please see the Sept. 22 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

DAVIDSON—Family and friends of local potash miners spent anxious hours last Wednesday and Thursday, waiting to hear from their loved ones who were trapped underground.
A water truck caught fire at about 3:30 – 4 p.m. last Wednesday afternoon at PotashCorp’s Allan mine, forcing 96 miners to seek refuge.
The fire set off stench gas, an alert gas that warns miners of fire, signaling them to seek shelter in one of the mine’s refuge stations. These stations are sealed to protect workers from flames and from breathing smoke or harmful gas. Other workers who weren’t able to get to a refuge station, built their own.
Ryan Shaw, who works at the Allan mine and is a member of its mine rescue team, said his shift was nearly over when he heard about the fire. The rescue teams got organized. Shaw said his five-member team, including Kirk Johnson, was the first rescue team to go down into the mine.
Shaw said when the stench gas is set off, miners “brattice” themselves in. Using a large plastic curtain, they seal themselves in an area where they have clean air and then wait for help.
“We’re always taught to follow procedure, to find the good air.”
As the first team into the mine, they were wearing breathing apparatus. It was their job to establish where the air was good.
Shaw said they made their way towards the fire, which was 1.1 kilometres underground and then another 5.8 km north of the shaft. Along the way, Shaw said they checked on workers who were in refuge stations or in brattice shelters.
“As long as nobody has health issues, we leave them there because we know they’re safe,” Shaw said.
At about 7:30 p.m. Shaw’s team made it to the fire. He said the plastic water tank and the truck’s rubber tires were still burning, so they extinguished the blaze.
Once the fire was out, it was a matter of waiting for smoke and gas to clear so they could remove workers from the refuge stations.
There were about 12 mine rescue teams, 30 people in all going up and down through the course of the operation, involved in the rescue that lasted until about 9 p.m. Thursday when all the trapped workers made it safely to the surface. Shaw and Johnson went down three times between Wednesday afternoon and Thursday night.
The fire burned three power feeder cables and some communication lines that were in the area.
To learn more, please see the Sept. 15 print edition of The Davidson Leader. To subscribe, call 306-567-2047.

DAVIDSON-Last Tuesday at Davidson School’s annual pep rally Blair Frederickson was presented with the SHSAA West Central Outstanding Male Coach of the Year for the 2013-2014 school year.
The award recognizes coaches who lead quality programs, display good sportsmanship and instills these values through coaching and involve a large segment of the school’s population.
Frederickson was nominated by Davidson School student Andrew Read, who was motivated to nominate him because of the impact that Frederickson has made in his life with his involvement in senior and junior football, junior basketball and bantam hockey.
“He made me appreciate each sport more and encouraged me to push myself to do better,” Andrew said. He knew in June that his nominee had won the award but it hadn’t arrived in time to be presented at Davidson’s yearend awards ceremony, so it was presented at the earliest opportunity this school year with Andrew presenting it to a man that he has quickly gained respect for.
“Mr. Frederickson has made an impact on not only this school, but on the community,” Andrew said.
To learn more, please see the Sept. 15 print edition of The Davidson Leader. To subscribe, Please call 306-567-2047.

DAVIDSON—After two years in business, the Revived Family Thrift Store on main street Davidson has closed its doors.
A lack of volunteers is the main reason the non-profit store had to close, said its founder Russell Sparks.
The store had advertised for volunteers to help run the shop that sold second-hand goods at steep discounts. Sparks said they made it clear in the advertisement that without volunteers, the store would have to close. No volunteers came forward, so the store closed its doors a few weeks ago.
He and his wife Angela worked at the store over the Labour Day weekend packing the store’s merchandise, including stuffing over 100 garbage bags with clothes.
Russell said most of this clothing was given to a company that collects clothes to send overseas. He said the company gave them a cash donation for the clothes. Russell said they are working this week on distributing the store’s proceeds.
It may have struggled to find volunteers, but Revived Family Thrift Store was a success in many other ways.
“We were always impressed with how generous people were with donations,” Angela said.
Revived Family Thrift Store donated its remaining stock to the Davidson Kinettes and the new swimming pool committee. These two groups will sell it in a garage sale Oct. 18 in conjunction with Centennial Ford’s Drive 4 UR Community event at Davidson Communiplex. Besides the garage sale, the Kinettes will run the canteen and there will be Halloween-themed children’s activities being supervised by high school-aged students.
To read more, please see the Sept. 15 print edition of The Davidson Leader. Call 306-567-2047 to subscribe.

DAVIDSON—The school year got off to a chilly start for staff at
Davidson School last Tuesday.
Despite warm temperatures, the school’s teachers, educational assistants and interns found themselves shivering outside in the afternoon sun having just been on the receiving end of the Ice Bucket Challenge.
Davidson’s Grade 12 class stood atop the school roof and poured buckets of ice water over the heads of their teachers down below as the entire student body gleefully watched.
The Ice Bucket Challenge is a popular fund-raiser for the ALS Association that, worldwide, has raised $109.4 million for research and to support people with ALS.
The Ice Bucket Challenge was a fun ending to the first day of school in Davidson and a way for the socially conscious school community to set a positive tone for a new school year.
So far Davidson is off to a good start.
Principal Jason Low pegs initial enrolment at about 242 students, an increase from last fall’s 228 students. Davidson welcomed 18 Kindergarten students this September.
To learn more about the first day of school and enrolment numbers at area schools, please see the Sept. 8 edition of The Davidson Leader.