Kenaston

Federal funds to flow west

Lynne Yelich, Minister of State for Western Economic Diversification, came home last Thursday to announce new funding for upgrades to existing infrastructure in Western Canada.

The announcement held at the Kenaston Swimming Pool saw the Kenaston resident and Conservative Party MP for Blackstrap announce $46.2 million in funding allocated towards community facilities including local arenas, community centre’s and sports fields over the next two years.

“This money is targetting community points of interest,” said Yelich. “It is not very easy to get money. Swimming pools are very expensive to run, so when they need an upgrade any money they can access for the upgrade is significant. (By holding the press conference at the pool) we’re trying to demonstrate the idea of what kind of community infrastructure would be able to apply for this funding.”

The money will be paid out to a community by regional agencies after a project has been completed and is in line with their proposal to Western Economic Diversification Canada (WD), an agency run by Yelich’s department. Only existing infrastructure that is in need of upgrades need apply.

Dan O’Handley, Mayor of the Village of Kenaston, said applications would be going out to WD towards getting a new filtration system for the pool as well as gaining a grant for upgrades to their hockey rink. He said that he wasn’t aware that money would be flowing west this quick, but was happy to have Minister Yelich back to announce the new spending.

“In rural Saskatchewan, money is hard to come by,” said O’Handley. “We’re not like the big places where they get a lot more grants. When we do get one, we’re always appreciative.”

Yelich said the money is only going towards existing infrastructure upgrades because funding new projects is just too expensive in a time when the government is trying to get out of deficit and into a balanced budget.

“In the meantime, all these communities may need is maybe a pump or a roof or an upgrade of some sort that will make a significant difference to that community,” she said. “Whether it’s seniors, the Legion, or the library, if there is something that needs an improvement then that’s what we will do.”

Davidson, featured

Primary-care model needed to cure what’s ailing rural medicine

Dr. Francisco Lang needs help. The number of patients that are walking through his doors at the Davidson Family Practice seeking assistance along with those coming to emergency services at the Davidson Health Centre are increasing every day and he simply can’t keep up.

Lang said this growth in problems that he is dealing with is due to the “migration of doctors” in nearby communities to group practices in bigger centres such as Saskatoon or Regina or even to other provinces. The fact that these patients are coming from different health regions other than Heartland Health is of no importance.

“As a result, there is an accumulation of the need for medical services here and you immediately realize that you are not enough to support and satisfy those expectations from the community,” said Lang. “It’s not that the community gets more illnesses; it’s not that the community is losing their healthy status. It’s simply that the volume and the problems around the communities are getting more complicated. This reason is why in rural communities or small communities, sole practitioners disappear.”

The Davidson Family Practice has seen a steady increase in patients since the doctor in Imperial left a few years ago and is likely to get a huge boost when Dr. Narinda Maree leaves for Moose Jaw at the beginning of August. Emergency services at the Davidson Health Centre have also seen a wide growth and will continue to do so considering all emergency services run out of Craik will now be shifted to Davidson when their doctor leaves.

Lang said a new primary-care model is needed to fix this situation or the same result will occur where a sole practitioner simply burns out. He said a team of doctors is needed to cover such a large area with two ideally placed in Davidson and a third operating out of Craik with basic emergency services at a minimum in that town.

“Patients do not consider the boundaries to move around to get medical services that are needed,” he said in reference to the existence of the different health care regions. “As such, a doctor in a community may not consider those boundaries either in terms of geographical division. Medically, I find it inappropriate for me to not treat a patient from Craik just based on the fact that patient belongs to another health region.”

To read more please see the July 9 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

Davidson

Bylaw controls use of fireworks

The days of impromptu late night fireworks displays in Davidson have come to an end.

At its meeting last Tuesday, Davidson town council passed a bylaw to control the use of fireworks within town limits.

From now on, no one may discharge fireworks within the town except for special occasions and with prior written consent from town council. As well, no one in town may sell fireworks to children under the age of 18.

Town administrator Gary Edom said council decided to adopt a fireworks bylaw because people are buying them in town and the town had requests from people asking if they could set some off in town, so council decided to pass a bylaw controlling their use.

The bylaw legislates where and how people may use fireworks and it gives town officials or the fire chief authority to suspend fireworks displays deemed dangerous to the public or property.

Covered in the bylaw are all types of fireworks including squibs, firecrackers, rockets, torpedoes, roman candles, sparklers and other pyrotechnics of all description.

If people violate provisions within the bylaw they are subject to fines set out in the town’s General Penalty Bylaw and could be liable to a fine of up to $2,000 for an individual and of up to $5,000 for a corporation.

Davidson, featured

CTRC to close Davidson campus

The Carleton Trail Regional College (CTRC) is closing its Davidson campus “around” July 20, but any services that are required by residents of Davidson can still be accessed through a different location, according to the CTRC interim CEO.

“The activity in Davidson was not as active as the other campuses were,” said Bill Cooke, referring to the small number of students who use the school compared to the campuses at Southey, Watrous, Wynyard and Humboldt and the limited number of instructors willing to teach at Davidson.

“We have fixed resources. Frankly, we don’t have any more money to do anything differently (than close the campus), so we have to work within what we have.

“With the building closing, it doesn’t make a whole lot of difference to the provision of services,” he said. “Any services needed in Davidson can be provided through Southey, it can be provided through Watrous or it can be provided in some sort of unique way. This is really making do with what are becoming quite limited resources.”

The CTRC is involved with upgrading basic adult education as well as credited trades programs such as emergency medical services (EMS), carpentry, plumbing and electrical as well as non-credit programs like photography and gardening.

Mary Jane Morrison, the mayor of Davidson, said she was not consulted prior to hearing from Cooke on June 21 that the campus would be closing. She said the town would fight to keep services in Davidson and will keep all lines of communication open to remain a voice in discussions to keep some programs here.

“I think it’s a real loss for our community,” said Morrison adding some jobs would be lost because of this decision, not to mention the harm done to mature students who don’t have the time to get to other campuses after their day jobs. “It’s always nice to provide that post-secondary education here, so people wouldn’t have to travel.

“When he told me they were closing, he said the numbers were down in Davidson. I understood that from some of the research that was done; however, I said that I didn’t agree. First of all, I don’t know how hard they tried to deliver a variety of programming here. At earlier times, there was a better job done at that.  I tried to point out a few things like Davidson is a growing community and there are a few classes here that they had taken away (that were well used).

“When he delivered the news to me, I said I wouldn’t keep Davidson out of the loop in the future,” she said.  “We mean that.”

To read more please see the July 2 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

featured

Wicked winds wallop region

Shortly after 10 o’clock last Wednesday morning, Al Hiebert was in Hanley running some errands.

The trip may have saved his life, or at least saved him from serious injury because otherwise, he’d have been building partitions inside his new Hot Shop currently under construction.

Instead, he returned to the shop at the edge of Shields around 11 a.m. to find the 50 x 150-foot building flattened by the near Hurricane-force winds that wreaked havoc over much of central Saskatchewan.

Hiebert said the wind most likely “lifted the roof up like an umbrella. The roof came up and the walls fell down.” Then the wind set the roof back down exactly where it should be, except the walls were no longer there to support it.

Hiebert said that none of the windows, all 18 of them, were broken. Most of the metal siding came through without a scratch, power tools remained where he left them, unharmed and the insulation remained secure in the walls.

The shop, which was being built by a contractor, was nearly finished. Hiebert said all that was left to do was to close in the ceiling.

“We were just starting the electrical,” he said. Once that and utilities were connected, he planned to bring in a furnace and other specialized glass-blowing tools so that he and wife Joan could get back to creating their art.

The Hieberts have been making original and beautiful objects out of blown glass from their Shields location for years.

But they’ve been unable to do so since October after a fire destroyed the Hot Shop.

The structure destroyed by wind was to replace the building they’d lost in the fire.

They’ve had a run of bad luck, but Hiebert said this latest setback won’t deter him and Joan from rebuilding the Hot Shop.

“It’s just stuff. Nobody was in it (when it blew over)…It’s just kind of a kick in the butt,” he said. “There will be another building here in a couple months.”

Davidson

Kenny Memorial Golf Tourney to raise funds for new pool

The Lyndon Kenny Memorial Golf Tournament is taking place this weekend at the Davidson Golf Course with all proceeds raised going to the new Davidson Swimming Pool fund.

Kelsi Kenny, Lyndon’s sister, said the tourney was put together because the family just wanted to do something to help benefit the town and with all the new families moving into Davidson, the swimming pool seemed like the ideal target. She said that a golf tournament was also the perfect way to remember her brother who passed away late last fall.

“We’re doing it as a chance to celebrate his life and do something that we all enjoy doing together,” Kelsi said. “He liked to golf and we all like to golf together as a family and we thought that would be a fun way to do that.”

Kelsi said they hope to raise around $4,000 at the golf course July 7, matching the amount raised for the Canadian Mental Health Association (Saskatchewan Division) this past winter through a charity poker tournament held in Lyndon’s name.

She said in addition to the tourney there will also be a silent auction featuring signed NHL jerseys, Carrie Underwood tickets and a harvest meal for up to 20 people. A hole-in-one challenge will also award two $20,000 prizes sponsored by Norman Sagen Insurance in Davidson and Al Hoffman Insurance in Kenaston.

“A lot of people have registered so far and we’ve got a lot of people that are talking about coming and wanting to donate prizes, so we’ve had a really great response,” she said. “I think that maybe we would like to keep this golf tournament going on as a yearly thing, either to raise money for the swimming pool or whatever is in need at that time in that year.”

Roy Kenny, Lyndon’s father, said the community was so sympathetic to the family at the passing that they decided they needed to do something to give back. He said the idea for a golf tournament came about because of Lyndon’s love of the game and of working at the course.

The memorial tourney will be limited to 72 golfers, putting eight people to a hole on the nine-hole course. Roy said the spots are filling up fast, but no one will be turned away if they do get more than 72 asking to participate.

“We’re just hoping that people come out and have some fun,” Roy said. “It’s going to have three different categories. We’re going to have two person scrambles, men’s teams, mixed teams and ladies’ teams. It’s going to be slow, but we just want people to come out and have fun. It helps the golf course and the clubhouse too and maybe we can raise a little money out of it hopefully.”

The Davidson Leader, Davidson, Saskatchewan