The cause of a fire that destroyed a mobile home in Davidson last Tuesday morning is under investigation.
A fire scene investigator from the Office of the Fire Commissioner along with Craik RCMP were looking through what remained of the McGregor Street house trailer on Wednesday, Jan. 15.
“Cause of the fire is currently under investigation,” said Const. Kevin Morrissette of the Craik RCMP detachment.
At about 10:15 a.m. on Jan. 14, Davidson’s volunteer fire department was dispatched to the fire at 309 McGregor St.
No one was home at the time, said fire chief Clayton Schilling, nor were any pets in the structure.
Schilling said the trailer was destroyed. Firefighters sprayed water into the building through a hole in the roof. As well, firefighters ripped down all the ceilings in the building as well as pulling up some of the floor so they could get all the hot spots out.
The Davidson department had 10 firefighters at the scene and they were finished by about 1 p.m.
Outside the trailer, mobility aids, including a wheelchair and a motorized scooter were parked on a deck. A wheeled walker remained at the end of the empty driveway.
A neighbour said he saw the man who lived in the mobile home leave at about eight o’clock that morning.
The man who lived in the trailer is Michael Shumka and he is likely homeless now. He bought the structure in the fall of 2013. Acquaintances of the man said he’d previously lived in an apartment on Washington Avenue in Davidson and had two large dogs. Shumka, who arrived in Davidson a year or two ago, was new to town, having previously lived in Swift Current.
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H1N1 flu presents challenge for Heartland Health Region
The Heartland Health Region has found itself in an unusual situation this flu season.
A sudden and severe H1N1 influenza virus has emerged as the predominant flu strain and it is increasingly hitting otherwise healthy people later into the 2013-2014 flu season than usual with the anticipation that the influenza activity is going to peak in the next couple weeks. These people being hit could have been protected had they received a common flu shot back at a public clinic in October, but are now looking for a shot at this late date when the supply of vaccine is limited.
Dr. David Torr, consulting medical health officer with the Heartland Health Region, said they are trying as best as possible to get in more vaccine and they did receive some last week. He said this vaccine would be distributed at some new public clinics in the region that are advertised on the Heartland Health website and through making appointments through an area’s local public health office.
“The challenge we are having now is keeping the supply matched with the demand,” said Torr, noting by this time the region usually just goes to appointments to provide the shot. “There have been a bit of logistical challenges with the vaccine coming in. The supply for us is from the province and the province has been trying to get it from out East, but with the weather conditions some of the couriers were a little reluctant to transport without insuring that the vaccine doesn’t freeze on the way and get destroyed.”
Torr said another issue with providing flu shots to the 75 per cent of the Heartland Health Region’s population that is un-immunized is demand versus what is available. He said by this time of the season most jurisdictions or suppliers have stopped providing vaccine assuming that whoever wanted a flu shot has got one already.
“This is a bit of a different situation where we’ve been seeing this sudden severe illness and then people are waking up and saying ‘oh, I better get it now too’ whereas historically many would say ‘it’s nothing I’m going to bother with.’ Now more people are showing interest.”
The H1N1 flu strain is also different in that the region normally sees more illness or severe illness in people over 65 years of age or those with underlying medical conditions, while the flu circulating this year is showing more aggression towards children under five years old as well as adults between the ages of 20 and 64 who don’t have any predisposed issues.
To read more please see the January 13 print edition of The Davidson Leader.
Wizened old bird rescues a wise old owl
A Great Horned Owl will see its first Christmas thanks to an inquisitive and kind retired veterinarian.
Dr. Barry Heath, who has residences in Loreburn and Saskatoon, rescued the injured owl last month from the side of Highway 19 after finding it sitting about five feet off the shoulder of the road. Upon finding the owl Heath bundled it in his coat and drove it to the Western College of Veterinary Medicine in Saskatoon for treatment.
“How many people get to run across an owl in that sort of a situation and then essentially think they may have saved its life,” said Heath, noting the bird is still recovering at the veterinary college. “I don’t know what kind of life it may have yet. It might be a captive owl the rest of its life. I don’t know.”
Heath said he found the owl while he was travelling a bit slower than normal, as is his usual routine, along the highway near Hawarden looking for red foxes and coyotes when he noticed an odd coloured lump on the ground that on closer inspection appeared to be a bird. He said when driving past the bird he noticed it to be an owl and since it unusually didn’t take flight he just assumed it must be injured, so he backed up his van and checked into it further.
“I walked around it, did a circle, and it followed me with its head as owls do, a 180-degree turn, and then it whipped back the other way and followed me all the way around and still didn’t try to walk away or move,” said Heath, noting it did extend its wings when he first got out of the van so he knew it didn’t have a broken wing. “Then I wondered about some kind of a head injury because it was close to the road and didn’t seem to be able to fly.”
There wasn’t any blood on the bird, so Heath said he then bent down to get a better look at the owl all the while speaking to it to try and soothe it. He said the owl still didn’t try and get away at this point and he knew if he left the bird where it was it would be attacked come nightfall by a fox or coyote, which normally patrol the shoulders of the road looking for mice or rabbits.
To read more please see the December 23 print edition of The Davidson Leader.
Students raise hope this Christmas season
Grades 4 and 5 students at Davidson School are leading the charge against homelessness and hunger this Christmas season.
Twenty-five kids from the two grades recently contributed to the Habitat for Humanity and Genworth Canada “Meaning of Home” online writing contest. With every entry received $5 was donated to over 30 Canadian Habitat affiliates by Genworth Canada.
In total 7,038 entries were submitted this year from grades four to six students with 546 of those coming from Saskatchewan placing student participation in this province fourth largest in the country. The entries raised $35,190 so far as a further $60,000 grant to a Habitat for Humanity affiliate of the winning entry’s choice along with five runner-up prizes of $5,000 each are going to be awarded in January.
“I would donate (the prize) to either the Saskatoon or Regina Habitat for Humanity shelter, so they can expand on it and take more people in,” said Grade 5 student Baylie White, 9, on what she would do if her entry was chosen as the winner.
In her entry Baylie wrote: “Home is something that everyone should have. Home is shelter, warmth and coziness. Home is a place where you can run and hide when you are scared. Home is somewhere you can have your family over for dinner. Home is somewhere you can watch your kids grow up. Home is something everyone should be able to call their own. Please help everyone have a house to call their own because home is where the heart is.”
Baylie said she had a little bit of help from her mom with the entry, but she likes writing and found it fun as well as important to contribute to the “Meaning of Home” contest.
“Seeing homeless people on the streets makes people really sad, so it’s kind of nice to try and donate to them,” she said.
Fellow Grade 5 student Logan Farrell, 10, said it is extra special for the kids to contribute to this contest because this is the Christmas season and this is a good way to give back. He said it was important to participate because it gave the kids a chance to “donate things to the homeless people.”
Habitat for Humanity “build houses,” said Logan. “If (people) need a house they do help them or they raise money for shelters.”
Logan’s entry into the contest read: “Home is (warm) and a (warm) bed. A place you can spend time with your family. Home is a place you can eat. Home is a movable place. Home is where you have Christmas and (Thanksgiving). Home is where I feel happy. That is what home is to me.”
Logan said the grades four and five kids are not the only ones at Davidson School trying to help the less fortunate this Christmas season as all the grades are participating in the Davidson InterChurch Association (DICA) Christmas Community Hamper project. For their effort, students and family members purchase “plates” from Dec. 3 to Dec. 13 with all proceeds donated to the Christmas Community Hamper project.
“Now we donate $2 to buy a plate for the homeless people,” said Logan. “I’ve looked around and I’ve seen lots of plates hanging on the doorways.”
McCraney patrons group await greener pastures
The leader of the McCraney PFRA Community Pasture committee patrons group is not willing to sign a lease agreement with the province unless it secures the non-reversionary land on the pasture for them.
Dean Palmer, chairman of the McCraney patrons group, said they were told on Nov. 29 that they won’t be able to own the yard site for the pasture that sits on non-reversionary land for a while. He said this is because the federal and provincial government has not come to terms on what they’re going to do with the land, which makes it tough on them to take control of the pasture when they don’t know who is going to secure the land rights to the non-reversionary piece.
“We’ve seen a draft lease and we’re supposed to be getting the official lease within two weeks, which is what the powers that be told us,” said Palmer. “We’re kind of waiting for that and see what happens then. I’m hoping there is some negotiation after that.
“The biggest thing for me is to get it spelled out properly how the non-reversionary land will be handed down once it does get put in place. The second issue is the bull issue. We’ve got money in place to buy the bulls, but we’re fighting too. They want us to buy the bulls now and we feel we need a full bull evaluation come spring to pay them in full and they’re balking at that as well.”
Palmer said they had 37 bulls and have cut out six already just by simple observations in the fall processing of the bulls, but they are not going to have a chance to do actual semen evaluations before they buy them making the patrons go into the sale “blind.” He said the land lease is not likely to “change a whole bunch” as the province doesn’t appear willing to negotiate, but the group’s power there lies in the fact the Saskatchewan and Canadian Governments don’t have their cards in order for the non-reversionary land.
“They do know that is important for our manager and his family and we’ve expressed interest in that already,” he said. “We were told way back on Nov. 17 that we were going to have a lease on that quarter because they had done a land swap with the federal government and everything was basically a done deal. When I asked for that written down on paper Mr. Hoehn, Wally Hoehn, said that you’ve got 17 witnesses. There were 17 people at the meeting that day and he said there are 17 witnesses here that will vouch for me.
“Then I get a call on (Nov. 29) saying that nothing can be done, so that is kinda a bit of a game-changer for us right now because our manager and his family are pretty important to us and our community.”
Wally Hoehn, executive director of Lands Branch with the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture, said the province has not acquired the non-reversionary land on the McCraney PFRA Community Pasture. He said they were trying to acquire it, “particularly the home quarter because we see it as an operationally critical chunk,” but have not been able to as it has not yet gone through the federal process.
“We have a proposal with the federal government to exchange some other Crown land that we have for critically operational land in those pastures (with non-reversionary land),” said Hoehn. “The federal government does have a process though that they have to follow through in terms of this non-reversionary land and so in the interim we do have agreements with the federal government that allow us to lease the non-reversionary land to include it in our lease to the patrons. So in effect we’re leasing it from the federal government and that lease that we have with them allows us to sublease it to the pasture patrons.
“If there is a lease for the McCraney group to sign next week it will include the non-reversionary land. Now the term of that land is a little different. You know (provincial) leases are for 15 years. The term of the non-reversionary land is undefined until the federal government gets it through the process, so we’re just waiting for that process to be finalized.”
To read more please see the December 9 print edition of The Davidson Leader.
$2.6 million improvements planned for Blackstrap
A “start” is the best way to categorize the two new agreements between the provincial government and private investors that would bring $2.6 million worth of improvements to Blackstrap Provincial Park, said a leader with the Dundurn Rural Municipality.
“There is a long ways to go yet,” said Fred Wilson, Reeve of the RM of Dundurn. “The Park itself is planning some more campsites and that is an important part of it too, but the marina is a good move because that will take quite a bit of pressure off their highway on the weekend with everybody having to bring their boat down and then take it back home again. The boat launch will help out quite a bit too.”
The Saskatchewan Parks, Culture and Sport Ministry reached the multi-million dollar agreement Nov. 15 with Blackstrap Marina Corp and Waterfront Development Ltd. to develop and operate a 190 slip inland marina at the Park that will offer multi-year, annual and daily slip rentals to the public as well as a marine fuel service, boat launch and vehicle and trailer parking as well as a new 12 fully-furnished year-round unit rental accommodation cabin project.
In addition to these agreements, the Parks, Culture and Sport Ministry announced they are in the planning stages of a new serviced campground for Blackstrap Provincial Park with design and development to occur over the next two years.
Lin Gallagher, deputy minister for Saskatchewan Parks, Culture and Sport, said the ministry began this project by entering into some public and stakeholder consultations as well as incorporating some of their own ideas on what would be appropriate for renewing Blackstrap and enhancing recreational opportunities in the area.
“Then coming from there… some unsolicited interest came in to us for proposals for different initiatives in the area of the Park and within the Park,” said Gallagher. “What we did then is we had a RFP (public request for proposals), so we formally solicited some detailed proposals for commercial or private parties and…we received two formal proposals from both of the companies that we’re working with now.”
Gallagher said the agreements entered into are for 25 years with the two companies responsible for paying the government for the lease along with all the costs of constructing and operating the facility. She said the marina developers are presently undertaking geo-technical and soil samples before they put in their construction and detail designs while working to obtain all federal and provincial regulatory approvals.
“What we understand from them is that they hope to be through all of that for spring of 2014 and they’re hoping to open in July of 2015 or earlier if possible,” she said. “For the rental cabins…they’re presently working on the detailed design plans for the cabins along with any supporting infrastructure requirements and plans and then they also have numerous regulatory approvals that they have to acquire and we need to ensure that they do that before they start work.
“They’re anticipating pouring foundations for all the cabins in the spring of 2014 with the cabins completed and ready for occupancy in the fall of 2014.”
To read more please see the December 2 print edition of The Davidson Leader.