Sports

Squirts win City League Championships

The Davidson Red Sox Squirt Girls’ softball team are league champions after a convincing two-game playoff sweep against the rival Saskatoon Hustlers Extreme June 24 at Glen Reeve Park in Saskatoon.

The win has earned them a berth in the provincial championships held in Regina later this summer.

Jason Shaw, head coach of the Red Sox, said the ages nine to 12 team had a fantastic showing at the season ending tournament, winning six of their seven games at the championship including two back-to-back 14-2 and 11-7 victories against the Hustlers on the final day. He said what makes this more admirable is the team had to play two more ballgames on that sunny day before the two-game final, creating quite a workload for the young team.

“For those girls to win four games in the heat when we haven’t played a lot of ball this season was pretty impressive,” Shaw said. “It wasn’t one or two girls carrying the team.  It was all 14 girls working together as a team. If one struck out, the next one up got a hit.  If one made an error, the next one made a play. That was pretty good.”

The Sox, who placed second in league standings after the regular season with an 8-1 record, started the final day with a victory over the Saskatoon Falcons at 8 a.m., before moving on to the powerhouse Warman Panthers at 10 a.m., who finished first in the regular season standings with an undefeated 10-0 record. Then came the hometown favourite Hustlers with the first game starting at 2 p.m. and the girls really started to show their mettle.

Shaw said the young team, which had seven rookies on the roster out of a squad of 14, had nine rainouts in its 18-game spring season causing problems with teaching aspects of the game to the girls. He said the club did manage to get in a few good practices though and with the help of assistant coaches Charmaine Bristow and Lindsay Cross, they did teach them a little about the great game of baseball.

“It was kind of tough for us, because in the city they group the kids or try them out,” Shaw said. “We had some girls that played some ball before and then we had some younger ones who weren’t quite as experienced, so basically it was just get them on the field and see what they’ve got.

“It was a steep learning curve for some of them,” he said. “A lot of the newer girls have improved quite a bit and we still had to keep some of the older girls interested, but we worked on things to keep them going too. We really didn’t have any expectations at the beginning of the year. We’re not in this for wins and losses. It’s to teach the girls how to play ball.”

The Sox now head to Regina July 6-8 for the provincial championships, where the Panthers and Hustlers as well as a few select clubs from the Regina league will join them. Shaw said the tourney will prove to be a difficult one for the team, but the girls will give it all they have, which is really all he can ask for.

“We’re not going there with any expectations, just like we weren’t going into this season with any,” he said. “We’re just hoping to play some good games, go there with a good attitude and try and play our best. If it doesn’t work out, we’ve still had a good season.”

Obituary

Didur

Ivan Walter

Ivan Walter Didur of Kenaston passed away peacefully at the Davidson Health Centre on June 11, 2012 after a short illness with cancer.

Ivan was born in Davidson on Feb. 26, 1946 and later married Donna Butler of Bladworth on October 28, 1967 in Bladworth.

He is survived by his loving wife Donna; children Randy (Shawna) of Saskatoon and Bryon of Kenaston, as well as extra special friends Ben and Raylene Collins of Hanley; grandchildren Cassandra, Christina and Patrick of Saskatoon and Dawson of Elk Point Alberta; great-grandchildren Reece, Jersey, Paelyn and Aurora; brothers Paul (Joan) and Allan (Doris); mother-in-law Gene Butler; brother-in-law Ross Butler (Michelle); as well as numerous nieces, nephews and other family members.

Ivan was predeceased by his parents Mike and Lillian Didur; brother Steven; sister Irene Bruynooghe-Brown; father-in-law Carmen Butler; brother-in-law Daniel Bruynooghe and sister-in-law Laurel Butler.

Ivan received his education at Meuse and Kenaston schools.

In his earlier life he worked for farmers and was a bookkeeper in Toronto for six months. When he returned home Ivan and Donna were married and he worked for a farmer at Imperial. Ivan and Donna then moved to Saskatoon where he worked on construction of the Midtown Plaza for a year. Ivan and Donna then moved to the farm, as Ivan loved farming. Ivan then began repairing elevators for a year or so, in addition to farming, until his health started failing him. He then went to work for his neighbor.

Ivan and Bryon joined the Bladworth Elks about six years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. Another joy of his life was camping at Manitou Beach at campsite #99 every year for many years. He also loved spending time with his children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and special dog Halley. Ivan was always there to help anyone that asked or needed it.

The funeral service for Ivan was held on June 15, 2012 at the Bladworth Community Hall at 2:00 p.m. with Pastor Gene Whitehead presiding. Ivan was laid to rest in the family plot in Bladworth Cemetery. The pallbearer was Ivan’s nephew Phillip Bruynooghe.

Ivan will be deeply loved and sadly missed by his wife, family and many friends and neighbors.

Hanson’s Funeral Home of Davidson in care of arrangements.

Davidson, featured

Thieves steal vehicles from Davidson

The Craik detachment of the RCMP is recommending people lock their homes and cars after a number of break-ins and vehicle thefts in Davidson sometime between Saturday, June 16 and the early morning hours of Monday, June 18.

Const. Kevin Morrissette said the RCMP is investigating after a few unlocked cars and one business on Railway Street was broken into and cash and possessions stolen.  He added two cars were also stolen from the town of Davidson including a red Pontiac G5 from the 200 block of Hamilton Street, which was later found abandoned on Highway 11 just south of Girvin, and a green Dodge Spirit from the 900 block of Government Road later found at the Davidson Sports Grounds.

“It is very much a good idea to keep your house and vehicle locked and also keep your vehicle parked in a well-lit area,” said Morrissette.  “Well-lit places do deter thieves from doing anything like that because they don’t want to be identified.  They don’t want to be detected and they tend to shy away from that.

“People sometimes think that if someone wants to break into their car, that they’ll break in,” he said.  “They’ll smash a window or something anyway.  The determined criminal will just smash a window, but then again if your vehicle is parked close to your home, smashing a window would create noise and that is going to deter them.  For example, in this case, they didn’t go into vehicles that were locked.  If it’s easy and convenient for them to just open the door and root through your car, it’s more tempting.”

The warmer weather does tend to bring about more people passing through town, especially with the major highway nearby, but the problem of convenience crimes occurs year-round.  If a transient or even a group of neighbourhood kids see an unlocked car or easy object to grab and run, they could be more tempted to go for it, said Morrissette.

“We recommend that people lock the doors of vehicles and not leave any keys inside the vehicles,” he said.  “If you have a motion light at your home that also helps as far as people breaking into garages or sheds and things like that.”

As for the Davidson crimes, the Craik RCMP are asking for the public’s assistance in finding these crooks and the Saskatchewan Crime Stoppers will also pay up to $2,000 for any information which leads to an arrest.

“I can’t speculate if it was kids around town,” said Morrissette.  “At this point, we don’t have any information as far as who it was.”

Obituary

Spilchak

Donna Rebecca (nee McJannet)

December 2, 1956 – June 16, 2012

After a lengthy struggle with Multiple Sclerosis, Donna passed away peacefully on the morning of June 16. She is predeceased by her parents Helen (nee Bryan) and John R. McJannet and father-in-law Sam Spilchak. She is survived by her husband John; children Tanya and Jason; beloved dog Patra; and many close friends.

Donna was born in Davidson, Sask., the third of four children, growing up on the family farm and attending school in the area. After graduation, Donna attended the U of S to receive her teaching degree. In 1977, she left this occupation and married the love of her life, John Spilchak, with whom she had two children Tanya and Jason. Donna took great pride in her family’s accomplishments and loved volunteering at the school when able. In 1988, she was diagnosed with MS which caused a slow deterioration of her body, functioning and meant ongoing pain for many years. Despite these struggles, Donna remained positive and was always ready with a joke or laugh. Donna was always a creative soul, engaging in various crafts, painting and music. She was also very outgoing and sociable and loved spending time with her family and friends. Donna leaves us with a legacy of love, smiles and laughter.

A private funeral will be held, attendance by invitation. Memorial donations may be made to the MS Society of Canada.

Arrangements entrusted to Hanson’s Funeral Home of Davidson, Sask.

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

Davidson’s taxes to increase by 6%

Property taxes are going up in Davidson, by about 6 per cent, to cover increasing costs.

“The cost of everything is going up,” town administrator Gary Edom said.

Council approved the Town of Davidson’s $2.1 million operating budget earlier this spring.

The budget is balanced by transferring $72,500 from reserves to bring down total expenditures from $2,170,354 to $2,098,161.

The 2012 budget covers costs of projects currently underway such as approximately $85,000 worth of upgrades to the town hall that included new windows, doors, wiring and the installation of a backup generator. The town had planned installing air conditioning as well, however, the project is on hold. Edom said they will apply to the Community Initiatives Fund for a grant in the fall to help with the $40,000 price tag.

The budget included costs of upgrading the town water well north of Davidson, work that has been going on this spring and included cleaning the well and installing a bigger pump and motor to match those on the other well.

Other expenses in the 2012 budget included costs of digging a new garbage pit in January.

The town has transferred $35,000 from its surplus funds account into reserves to be used towards the future purchase of a fire truck.

The mild winter last year allowed the town to save some money in snow removal costs, which were about $10,000 less than the $18,000 budgeted for the expense. The lack of snow helped the town save the expense of hiring contractors to assist with snow removal.

Besides the 6 per cent increase in property taxes, residents can expect a 10 per cent increase in water rates once the proposed increase is approved by the local government committee of the Saskatchewan Municipal Board.

This year the town plans to earn $905,500 from property taxes, compared to $833,821 it raised by the municipal levy last year. The town makes up the rest of its revenue from federal and provincial operating grants amounting to $377,278, fees and charges of about $418,000 and utility charges of $299,000.

The Davidson Leader, Davidson, Saskatchewan