The expected above normal spring runoff has raised flooding concerns for reeves of rural municipalities in this area, but they believe their preparations in anticipation of the potential for high runoff will mitigate any disastrous consequences.

“We’re just waiting to see what’s going to happen, but I think we’ve got most of our culverts cleaned out that we can clean out,” said Fred Wilson, Reeve of the RM of Dundurn. “There is not much else we can do. That storm we had two weeks ago really moved the snow pattern around, so we’re not exactly sure what’s going to happen. It put some pretty extreme snowdrifts in some places, but it’s going to take a while for that to melt down. That actually did reduce our flood problems a little bit.”

Wilson said the provincial Water Security Agency (WSA) informed them that they were looking at a “fairly extensive flood” a few weeks ago, but the slow melt that has occurred through April has reduced that concern. He said the bad flood of 2006 also provided the RM with increased measures of reducing flood waters from washing out roads in the municipality.

“We have a fairly extensive watershed that starts northwest of Bladworth and all that water runs up through Dundurn in the springtime,” he said. “It crosses Highway 15 and west of Hanley.”

The flood of 2006 went over Hwy 15 and took out some roads in the Rosedale municipality and backed up an area northwest of Dundurn that normally fills up and drains out towards the river, said Wilson. He said they had some roads that were under water for about six weeks in 2006.

“We have lifted the roads that were flooded out that time another foot and a half, so if (this year’s) the same flood as 2006, we figure we can still handle it.”

The WSA released their April forecast this past week predicting an above normal runoff for the majority of the province with some areas expected to have the potential for a very high runoff and flooding. The rural municipalities of Craik and Big River, which is near the villages of Imperial and Etters Beach, are predicted to have above normal potential runoff this spring.

To read more please see the April 15 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

The Saskatchewan Government’s decision to provide the use of fixed assets on community pastures such as fences, dugouts and cattle handling facilities to patrons at no cost is “very positive,” but the 15-year lease agreement offered by the government makes pasture grassland very expensive for small cattle producers, said the chair of a farmer-run patrons organization.

Ian McCreary, chair of the Community Pasture Patrons Association of Saskatchewan (CPPAS), said the lease fee requirement of patrons plus taxes they must pay varies between 40 and 50 cents a day per cow/calf payer. He said the lease fee requirement is 27 or 28 cents per head plus 13 to 23 cents per head for taxes depending on where the patrons graze their cattle.

“Right now the government is providing that land to the PFRA (Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration) system at no charge and the PFRA system is running those pastures and losing money, significant amounts, and they are expecting the patrons to run those pastures and pay a lease fee of 27 or 28 cents a day and pay the taxes,” said McCreary. “The patron groups are looking at it and saying we’re going to be among the most expensive grass in North America.”

McCreary said small cattle producers must also have staff in the pasture in order to manage the grass appropriately, which further adds to patron’s costs. He said with the addition of this lease agreement patron groups in Saskatchewan are facing “way more expensive” costs for grassland than counterparts in Manitoba and Alberta as well as key grazing states in the United States.

“We need to find a way to get some additional savings,” he said. “Right now, can the pasture (patrons) afford to pay the lease fee? Well, it’s borderline. Every pasture (patron) has to take a look at those numbers, but it’s still more expensive grass. In Manitoba when these pastures got turned over, they turned it over to the patron groups with no lease fee. In Alberta, they turned their community pastures over and they agreed on a lease fee of $1.39 per animal unit a month.

“We need to find a way to get this lease fee lower in order to make the package more attractive.”

Lyle Stewart, Minister of Agriculture for the Government of Saskatchewan, said the 15-year lease term for community pastures was decided upon in discussions with patrons. He said the government originally suggested a five-year lease agreement, but patrons said that would not provide them with enough security, so it was moved up to the current term.

“All the province will get is about 27 cents (a head) and the rest of the costs are other costs (such as) labour, maintaining the fixed assets and so on,” said Stewart. “Those are things that patrons, as good business people, can be creative with.”

Stewart said the decision to provide the fixed assets on community pastures to patrons at no cost also came through these discussions with patrons after the government learned they would be getting these assets from the federal government at no cost.

To read more please see the April 8 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

A winter storm tore through Saskatchewan last Wednesday and Thursday making roads impossible to pass and stranding motorists either in their cars or, if they were smart enough not to venture out, where they last were before the snow started falling.

The RCMP media relations bureau released numerous no travel advisories starting last Wednesday evening and continuing all day and night Thursday cautioning people to stay where they are to keep themselves and their families safe.

The advisories stated roads were blocked by the winter storm in an area ranging from north of Saskatoon through Regina to the United States border and west to the Alberta border. They said the RCMP received 150 calls of vehicle incidents on the roads for crashes, vehicles stuck in the ditch or on the road and semi-trailers jackknifed.

The wind was blowing steadily at about 40 to 60-kilometres per hour with gusts at one point reaching 80 km/h.

The police said the storm reduced visibility to zero at points and long snowdrifts made roads impassable. They said nightfall on March 21 made travel extreme and the severity of the storm made it difficult for even emergency personnel to be on the roads.

Locally, Highway 44 was closed around noon Thursday and reopened mid-afternoon Friday.

Fred Wilson, Reeve of the Rural Municipality of Dundurn, said residents off sub-division roads in the RM were trapped in their homes for two or three days during the storm due to closed roads. He said the graders hit the roads in their attempt to clear the 300 kilometres of roads they are responsible for at dawn last Friday, but it was expected it would take a few days to get everything back in good shape.

“Some of our ratepayers have taken it upon themselves to open up a few spots on their own, which is gratefully accepted,” said Wilson. “We found it very hard, so our loader tractors had to go out with one of the graders because we don’t have a plow on the front of it, so just to break it open. The stuff is hard as a rock, but we’re getting by.”

Wilson said he’d like to thank their ratepayers for being so understanding with the time it is taking to get the roads back up and running, as the graders couldn’t go out during the storm and had to wait a few days to clear the roads.

“There was no point because every time you open (the road) up, it blew right behind the grader,” he said. “It just made it harder for people to get where they’re going so we didn’t even bother going out.”

To read more please see the March 25 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

After 27 years helping area youth grow into responsible adults, the 553 Sherlock Squadron Royal Canadian Air Cadets is in danger of closure due to a declining number of recruits.

Captain Krystal Klenk, commanding officer of squadron 553, said the Department of National Defence (DND) has informed the squadron they must “put in the effort” to sign up at least five or six new recruits, on top of their current five, for the 2013-2014 cadet year or they will be shut down following that year.

“The problem with that is there is not many squadrons around this area,” said Klenk. “We’re actually smack dab in the middle of no cadet squadrons. If the squadron does close by not getting enough cadets in, then there won’t be a squadron for a good hour radius.”

Klenk said the squadron gives young people an opportunity to excel as leaders and develop professionally and as good citizens through its focus on self-discipline, order, structure and public speaking. She said the program also provides fun experiences for the recruits such as a gliding day, exchanges with other squadrons in different parts of the country, survival exercises and trips to the Canadian Forces base in Moose Jaw and the RCMP depot, with funding for the trips coming from DND.

“We need to get the word out that there is this program and all that it has to offer,” she said. “In the past, I’m not too sure people were aware of all it had to offer, kids knowing what it has and also parents knowing the benefits that it can create for their child.”

Formed in February 1986, the squadron has had a membership as high as 42 cadets one year and ran with around 15 to 20 recruits for a number of years. Members are between the ages of 12 and 19 and the cadet year runs from September to the end of May. Cadets do not have an obligation to join the Canadian Forces once they become of age.

To read more please see the March 18 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

Davidson’s population rose by about 200 the evening of March 3 and early morning of March 4 thanks to a blizzard that swept through the area closing Highway 11 between Chamberlain and Davidson for approximately 10 hours.

Trish Schilling, Davidson emergency management officer (EMO), said around 150 to 200 people ranging in age from a one-year-old baby to a 93-year-old lady were routed from Hwy. 11 to Davidson Town Hall between the hours of 7 p.m. March 3 to 1 a.m. March 4. She said the majority of people waited out the storm at the town hall, but many were also redirected to billets in the community and a sleeping space at the Davidson New Life Pentecostal Assembly.

“We have a billet list (of people) who are willing to take in stranded travellers, so we phoned them and exhausted that list,” said Schilling. “Then Russell and Angela Sparks opened up the Pentecostal Church and we billeted some out there. The remainder just held off (at the town hall) until the highways were opened (at 5 a.m.) and they took they their chances once the roads were clear.”

Around 20 billets in the community opened their homes to approximately 50 people, while another 25 people slept on bedding provided by the Davidson Health Centre at the Assembly. The remaining 75 to 125 people spent the night at the town hall where tables and chairs were set up, coffee was provided through volunteer work by Danielle Schneider, diapers were given by town residents and food in the form of pizzas and sandwiches were donated by Toppers Bar and Grill for the hungry stranded.

“We just provided a warm spot where travellers could be, so they weren’t on the side of the road,” said Schilling.

Craik RCMP constable Ian Smith said the Saskatchewan Ministry of Highways closed the stretch of Hwy. 11 between Chamberlain and Davidson at approximately 7 p.m. March 3 due to three separate accidents on the curve at Hwy. 11 at Girvin and reopened it at around 5 a.m. He said there were “too many vehicles to count” in the ditch that night, but there were no injuries.

To read more please see the March 11 print edition of The Davidson Leader.