Category Archives: featured

featured

Winter Games brings together top local athletes

Several young local athletes got a chance to enjoy their own Olympics last month and a couple even walked away with medals when they competed for Team Prairie Central and Team South West at the 2014 Saskatchewan Winter Games held Feb. 15 to 22 in Prince Albert.

“It was a great experience,” said Elbow’s Shane Lafontaine, 14, who won a gold medal with the Prairie Central badminton team. “The competition is really good. There was lots of pretty amazing athletes there. You’re kind of nervous when you start, but after you just get used to it and you start playing your sport. Its real good competition and lots of fun.”

Overall, the badminton team went undefeated at the Games going 3-0 in round-robin competition with victories over Parkland Valley, Regina and South West before moving on to the gold medal match against Rivers West (4-0). In the Feb. 22 final at Carlton Comprehensive High School, Prairie Central beat Rivers West 5-4 to take the gold.

“I was ecstatic,” Shane said. “I never thought that we could win and it just really made my week.”

Davidson’s Breanna Shaw and Hanley’s Kianna Dietz suited up as forwards for the Prairie Central female hockey team that finished fifth out of nine districts in the province that competed at the Games. The girls earned the spot by beating Parkland Valley 4-0 Feb. 22 at the Dave G. Stewart Arena after compiling a 1-2 record in round-robin play.

Kianna, 14, said the skill level of all the female hockey players was “awesome” making the tournament great to take part in. She said the Olympic-style organization of the games with an athletes village and having the best hockey players from all over Saskatchewan take part made the Games really special.

“I thought it was really cool to be with all the other athletes and the closing ceremonies were really cool,” said Breanna, 13. “Everyone was really nice and supporting. It was fun to be with everyone and meet new people.”

On the male hockey team, Hawarden’s Nolan Haugen and Loreburn’s Dodge Long led the attack for Team Prairie Central. After going 3-1 in round-robin play, the boys lost their final game 3-1 to Saskatoon Feb. 19 at the Art Hauser Centre putting them in fourth place.

Dean McNabb, a 13-year-old goaltender for Team South West, said there were several good teams at the Games, but winning and losing wasn’t really the main focus for their team. He said they were out there to have a good time and that is just what the week provided.

“It was a lot of fun,” said Dean, whose team finished sixth in the standings. “I met a lot of new people and the athletes village was really amazing. There was three gyms and we had the freedom to do whatever we wanted.”

The Prairie Central female curling team, which has Hanley’s Hanna Anderson as its skip, not only won a bronze medal at the Winter Games, but also qualified for the 2015 Canada Games training program.

“Now we train all year and then in December we playoff again for the Canada Games to represent Saskatchewan,” said Hanna, 16. “You do on-ice training and then you do nutrition and strategy and fitness and all that stuff.”

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

featured

Motorists seek shelter in Davidson

For the second time in less than a year, Davidson residents opened their homes to complete strangers after icy conditions and blowing snow forced the Saskatchewan Ministry of Highways to close Highway 11 between Kenaston and Regina for approximately two hours last Wednesday stranding travellers in town.

Davidson Emergency Measures Operations (EMO) coordinator Trish Shilling said about 80 of the 175 people who were diverted off the highway to Davidson Town Hall and decided to spend the night in town were billeted to 25 different households. Another 80 headed to the New Life Pentecostal Assembly to sleep on bedding provided by the Davidson Health Centre. She said the 15 other travellers decided to stay overnight at the Town Hall despite the EMO having more homeowners in town willing to act as billets.

“It ran a lot smoother than last year,” said Schilling when comparing Feb. 18 to the first time she had to organize emergency shelter for stranded travellers early last March. “This time I had a little more forewarning I guess. Last time, we got there and people were already streaming in, 20 to 30 at a time, while this time they kind of trickled in. It wasn’t late at night (like last time), so the time of day made a difference because it was still daylight and people weren’t as panicked. Even the travellers were more relaxed and we had more time to get set up and talk to them and get organized.”

A Craik RCMP constable said the provincial Ministry of Highways closed Highway 11 between Kenaston and Regina at 3:15 p.m. due to bad weather conditions and reopened it at 5:30 p.m. resulting in motorists being diverted to the Davidson Town Hall and Craik Legion Hall during that time. He said they received 19 calls for traffic collisions on Highway 11 during the blizzard including one for a jack-knifed semi with two trailers that blocked the southbound lane one kilometre south of Girvin that backed up 200 vehicles behind the collision for upwards of five hours.

Estevan residents Pam Dechief, Leann Boehm and Sheila Guenther were three motorists who found themselves stopped outside of Girvin due to the semi accident. They said they were on their way home from volunteering and checking out the Saskatchewan Winter Games in Prince Albert when they found themselves in the back up.

“We were there for awhile waiting on the highway for about an hour and a half listening to the radio and finally it sounded like they weren’t going to be able to clear the highway off anytime soon,” said Guenther, who along with the other two women and Brandon’s Tammy Johannson were billeted by Bob and Shirley Bender. “We came into town, stopped at the first motel, the Jubilee, and waited a little bit to see if they had any rooms. They sold out the last two rooms right before it was our turn. Then we started driving around town looking for another one and I called the town office and talked to a man there and he told me about (the) EMO coordinator, so I called her.”

To read more please see the February 24 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

featured

Local kids compete at Saskatchewan Winter Games

The top young athletes in the province are gathered together this week in Prince Albert to compete for a gold medal at the 2014 Saskatchewan Winter Games.

Over 150 of these young adults from the Humboldt, Fort Qu’Appelle and Watrous areas will make up Team Prairie Central, one of nine different district teams comprised of around 1,700 athletes in total. Six athletes from Davidson and area, including Elbow’s Shane Lafontaine, Hanley’s Hanna Anderson and Kianna Dietz, Loreburn’s Dodge Long, Davidson’s Breanna Shaw and Hawarden’s Nolan Haugen are members of Team Prairie Central.

“This is my first time (going),” said Nolan, 13, who is a forward for the Prairie Central hockey team. “I’m really excited to be a part of it and represent my zone. I’m expecting it to be hard, but I’m just going to give it my all.”

Nolan, a member of the Clavet Cougars, said he made the team at a three-day tryout in Warman, which was structured as a round-robin tournament. The Kenaston School Grade 8 student said they haven’t had any practices since the team was picked, but he doesn’t believe playing with a different team is going to cause them any problems.

“We’ll just work hard and try to win a bunch of games,” he said. “It’ll be kind of new playing with a bunch of new kids, but it’ll be really fun.”

Dodge is one of the kids who will line up with Nolan on the Prairie Central male hockey team. Breanna and Kianna are going to be playing for the female hockey team, while Hanna will skip the female curling team and Shane is going to be trying his best with the badminton team.

Loreburn’s Grant Abbott, coach of the Prairie Central badminton team, said they have a good squad this year and the hope is the badminton team can compete for a medal at the games. He said nine players on their team belong to a Saskatoon club and are pretty familiar with each other and they’ve also gotten together for a practice as Prairie Central before the games, so they should be ready going in.

“Winning a gold would be a bonus,” said Abbott. “We talked about that at the practice that the main objective is to go in there and have a great experience and to have lots of fun. For a lot of these kids that are playing this will be their only opportunity to play in badminton because it is only every four years. Hopefully they’ll really enjoy it and maybe if they’re lucky enough they’ll participate in the Summer Games in two years in a different sport.

“I know I really enjoyed it four years ago,” he added. “My son (Ian) was on the team four years ago and it was a great experience. It’s a lot of fun and win or lose hopefully it’ll be a great time.”

To read more please see the Feb. 17 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

Davidson, featured

Patrons strive to make community pastures viable

Dean Palmer recently admitted to a room full of cattlemen and women that he’s a worrier and that he’s an impatient man.
With such character traits as these, it’s a wonder how he wound up as chairman of the newly formed McCraney Community Grazing Corporation.
“I missed a meeting,” he told the crowd of cattle producers packed into Davidson’s community centre.
The answer earned him lots of laughs as well as a few sympathetic nods from the crowd attending the Community Pasture Patron Association of Saskatchewan’s first annual general meeting.
Palmer as well as Clint Christianson, of Lone Tree Grazing, were there to relate their experiences with the transition of community pastures process.
“If you don’t like bungee jumping or skydiving, this isn’t for you, because that’s what this is,” Palmer said.
Christianson offered a different metaphor: “We’re kind of like the sheep that got led to slaughter first.”
The two men are involved in forming patrons groups that will operate the former PFRA community pastures in their areas this spring. This is necessary because in 2012 the Harper Conservative government suddenly announced it would no longer operate community pastures. The provincial government, which owns the land, indicated it had no interest in operating the pastures either, but would lease the pastures to patrons.
A year ago patrons of community pastures formed CPPAS to represent their concerns with the goal of maintaining the long-term viability of the pastures for cattle production and cattle grazing.
CPPAS is “about all of us working together to achieve success. No one else will save our pastures,” CPPAS chairman Ian McCreary said.
The group has representation from nearly all of the affected pastures in the province and is a way of pooling resources and expertise for the patrons as well as representing patrons’ concerns to the provincial and federal governments.
The association’s first priority was to seek a delay in the transition process. McCreary said there were a number of issues that needed resolution, however, he said, the federal government denied this request.
Last year was the final grazing year for 10 federally operated pastures, including McCraney, which is northeast of Davidson and Lone Tree, in southern Saskatchewan near the U.S. border.
To read more please see the February 10 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

Craik, featured

Breakdowns force temporary closure of Eco-Centre

A series of breakdowns and the loss of a tenant has temporarily closed the Craik Eco-Centre.

Craik Mayor Rick Rogers said the Eco-Centre closed Dec. 1 and would remain dark till the spring due to a water line to the building breaking in September, a heat pump in the geothermal heating system quitting a couple months after that and their main tenant walking away from the centre once they finished their lease at the end of November.

“The field slid there behind the building and we have to move the water line,” said Rogers. “It was getting late in the fall and we said ‘well, we’ll do it in the spring.’ We’ll re-pipe that line there in a different way. (We’ve) actually fixed it twice already and it broke again.”

Rogers said a repairperson from Saskatoon was scheduled to arrive last week to replace the pump for the geothermal heating system. He said the pump was the main priority because without it the temperature had fallen to “about 6ºC or 7ºC” in the centre, which is home to the Solar Garden Restaurant, conference rooms and the Craik and District Golf Club House and Pro Shop.

“We could move into there (this) week,” said Rogers, noting a working water line is not a necessity to having the centre open for business as they could haul water into the building instead. “But we’re going to do some painting and a major cleanup and we’re going to change around the kitchen a wee bit. We’re going to put another stove in there because one of the burners is burnt out, so we’re going to replace (that). We’ve got a bunch of things we’re going to do. We’re going to have a big day cleaning and stuff. A couple blinds aren’t working properly. We’re going to have to get them changed. (There’s) lots of little things we have to do to fix it up.”

The town has not advertised for a new tenant to run the Solar Garden Restaurant and rent out the meeting rooms as of yet, said Rogers, because they are currently in the process of re-writing the lease agreement. He said the last lease agreement was a “little too strict” on the tenant, so they are trying to make this one more lenient.

“It’ll be going for the golf season for sure,” he said. “We’ve had people wanting to run a restaurant there (already), so we don’t think we’ll have too much trouble once we put a tender up.”

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

Davidson, featured

Vandals hit and destroy Davidson road sign

The Craik detachment of the RCMP is asking for the public’s assistance in solving a recent vandalism case.

A road sign on the boulevard of Railway Street at Francis Street in Davidson was hit and destroyed by a vehicle sometime during the early morning hours of Jan. 19. Prior to hitting the sign the perpetrators drove the vehicle through the snow between the trees on the boulevard.

Craik RCMP constable Smith said no witnesses to the crime have come forward as of yet and all they have to go on is “tire tracks in the snow.” He said if anyone has any information on the vandalism case to please contact the Craik RCMP detachment or Saskatchewan Crime Stoppers.

According to a RCMP press release, the suspect vehicle would most likely have damage to the front end. Smith said this was the only vandalism crime in Davidson that was reported to them over the weekend, but they do see a few each year.

“There is no high time for vandalism or low time,” he said about whether the crime is committing less in the winter compared to the summer months. “We get a couple (calls) a year out of Davidson.”