Category Archives: featured

Davidson, featured

Craik still looks for physician

The search for a new physician for Craik and the Five Hills Health Region has the mayor of Davidson concerned, but also hopeful that the parties concerned are starting to “look at the bigger picture” in their hopes to alleviate the added pressure that is being put on Davidson’s physician.

“It has a large impact for us because the doctor in Craik shares on call services with the doctor in Davidson,” said Mayor Mary Jane Morrison. “What they’ve been doing up until recently is every other weekend (one of) the doctors serves calls and they share those calls through the week as well.

“That hasn’t been consistent through the last little while because Dr. Maree has sort of been in the process of moving or working away from Craik,” she said. “As a result our doctor here has done his complete share of calls, but then there has been a disruption of service because she hasn’t been able to fulfill her obligation.”

Morrison said if you consider the populations of the towns of Davidson and Craik and the surrounding area that is also being served by those two doctors, Narinda Maree in Craik and F. Lang Bayona in Davidson, you would come up with more than 5,000 people in need of help.

“If you think of our whole region as a large town that has two doctors and all of a sudden you have one, then there is a real concern there,” she said.

Maree is moving to Moose Jaw in August to accept a physician’s job there after serving the community of Craik for the past 16 years. The Five Hills Health Region is in negotiations with another doctor to replace her, but a contract has yet to be finalized, to the frustration of Craik residents and Hilton Spencer, the Reeve of the Rural Municipality of Craik.

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

Davidson, featured

Drivers needed to operate Handivan

DAVIDSON—The town is looking for a few good men or women to take the wheel of the Handivan.

The Handivan, which is owned by the Town of Davidson, is important to the social lives of many of Davidson’s senior citizens who rely on it for a ride to and from the senior centre.

Currently, Murray Lloyd is driving the van.

He’d like to see more drivers come forward so he can take some time off.

“It’d be nice to have three or four drivers,” Lloyd said.

This way they could take turns, sharing the responsibility so it didn’t fall on one or two individuals.

Although this seems easy enough, coming up with a schedule for multiple drivers, hasn’t really been done before.

The drivers keep a log. Leafing through it, Lloyd finds Earl Johnson’s name and then Con Painchaud’s.

“He drove it for ages. I drove it 68 times last year.”

Currently, when Lloyd cannot drive the van, Bob Bender drives it, however, there are times Bob, who farms, cannot drive the van because he is busy working.

Lloyd hopes that other people who have some time on Tuesdays and Thursdays may help out the seniors.

Usually there are between five and seven passengers who require a ride to and from the Davidson Senior Citizens Centre on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons.

Lloyd said he takes them to the senior centre at 1:30 p.m. and returns at 3:30 p.m. to take them back home.

“It’s not a hard thing to drive. It’s no worse than driving a car,” Lloyd said.

Because the van is accessible for people with disabilities, it is easy for people to get in and out of.

Women as well as men are welcome to drive it. No lifting is required.

The only training required is for drivers to learn how to secure a wheel chair.

“I don’t mind doing the volunteer work. I think it’s part of community service, but I’m sure there are others who could do it as well,” Lloyd said.
Anyone interested in helping out with the Handivan should contact Davidson’s town office.

featured, Kenaston

New intersection proposed for Highway 11 and 15

KENASTON—Residents of Kenaston and area had a chance to view proposed changes to the community’s main intersection.

Saskatchewan Highways and Infrastructure put on an open house June 6 seeking people’s reactions to four options dealing with the intersection of highways 11 and 15.

As part of planned upgrades to Highway 15, the provincial government is studying options to improve the intersection of highways 11 and 15.

The current intersection is skewed, meaning the highways intersect on angles, so as part of the upgrade, the government is proposing to move the intersection to make it safer.

“It’s not very safe at all,” said Tracy Danielson, director of regional design and construction for Saskatchewan Highways and Infrastructure.

They had four options for people to look at. Most suggested moving Highway 15 either north or south of town.

Option 1 proposed no change and would leave it as is.

Option 2 proposed moving the intersection south of Kenaston that would require 4.73 km of upgraded Hwy. 15 and 2.46 km of service road. A new bridge/culvert and rail crossing would be required. As well, this route would require the highway to be constructed on environmentally sensitive grasslands south of Kenaston.

Option 3 offered moving the Highway 15/11 intersection north of town requiring 2.90 km of Highway 15 to be built and a service road of 1.83 km in length.

Option 4 also proposed moving the intersection north of the village, but giving the village even wider berth so that 4.84 km of highway 15 and 2.76 km of service road would be built. As well, this option needs either a new bridge or culvert and a railway crossing.

“They missed the most important option: an overpass,” Kenaston resident Allan Krpan said. He said that with 12,000 vehicles going by each day, the intersection is one of the busiest in Saskatchewan.

Kenaston’s Mayor Dan O’Handley said he liked Option 4 the best.

“The noise level would be cut way down and by looping way north, we have room for northern expansion,” he said.

Increasingly, Highway 15 is experiencing more heavy truck traffic. It has been designated as a high clearance corridor through Saskatchewan.

Transport trucks hauling very tall loads must travel Highway 15 so they can use the bridge in Outlook to get their cargo across the South Saskatchewan River.

“For us tonight, the most important part is finding out what people who live in the area think about it,” Danielson said.

She said the community should hear back within 12 months on the plans for the intersection.

“We don’t have a specific timeline, nor is there a design or budget in place,” she said.

featured

Three injured in rollover near Hanley

HANLEY—Both lanes of Highway 11 were closed to traffic Tuesday afternoon due to a single vehicle rollover.

At 3:15 p.m., RCMP Cpl. Rob King said members were on the scene of the rollover, which occurred about one-kilometre north of Hanley.

Three occupants were trapped in the vehicle, two males and one female. Hanley’s fire department were on the scene to remove the victims: a 20-year-old male, a 17-year-old male and a 21-year-old female, King said. All three occupants were transported to Royal University Hospital in Saskatoon with non-life threatening injuries.

The highway was re-opened to traffic.

More details to follow.

featured

Fisherman reels in bomb

HANLEY—A man fishing at the Brightwater Reservoir west of Hanley has quite a fishing tale to tell after he reeled in a bomb last Sunday.

Saskatoon RCMP, at about 7:20 p.m. Sunday, June 3, got a call from a fisherman after he had hooked and landed what he thought may be a homemade bomb.

RCMP attended the call and after looking at the device, cleared and secured the area and called in the RCMP Explosives Disposal Unit, said RCMP spokesman Cpl. Rob King.

The bomb squad examined the device and determined it was some type of homemade bomb. The device was neutralized at the scene and police declared the area safe once again for fishing.

King said RCMP cannot give any details about the device or how it was “neutralized”.

“We don’t want the general public knowing the details,” he said.

How it came to be in the water is still under investigation.

While King said he doesn’t know what the man was fishing for, a bomb was most likely not the intended prey.

He said this is the first time a device like this has been found in a body of water.

“It’s never happened before,” King said.

Last week, the incident was the talk of the town in Hanley, on the street, at the coffee shop and Facebook.

If the angler lives around Hanley, he doesn’t frequent coffee row.

“Everybody in town knows about it, but nobody knows who caught it,” said Hanley’s town administrator Darice Carlson. “He doesn’t go for coffee.”

Police would like any witnesses or anyone with information about explosives being used in the area to contact them.

featured

RMs to meet over PFRA pastures

Ratepayers of the rural municipalities of Dundurn, Rudy and Rosedale will meet Wednesday in Hanley to talk about the future of the Dundurn and the Rudy/Rosedale community pastures.

Fred Wilson, Reeve of the R.M. of Dundurn, said community members and pasture patrons have been talking informally since the federal government’s decision to wind down the Community Pastures Program came to light in mid-April.

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada plans to get out of managing the pastures over the next six years. The process begins in 2013 when the government will cease operations of 10 community pastures—five in Saskatchewan and five in Manitoba. Another five pastures in Saskatchewan will be transferred in 2014.

Ideally, Wilson said, the pastures would remain in the public domain, if not operated by federal or provincial governments, than the municipalities could possibly take over their management.

“The majority’s consensus is we would like them to stay as community pastures.”

He’s heard rumours about organizations and companies big enough to buy them may be interested in some of the more lucrative pastures. On the other hand, Wilson said, he can’t see the province letting them go because some are rich in resources like oil, gas and gravel.

To read more, please see the June 11, 2012 print edition of The Davidson Leader.