Katie Ryan - Staff Writer

Lloydminster Hospital is now home to valuable new technology that will decrease wait times and increase patient safety. This past Monday marked the Prairie North Health Region’s (PNHR) official launch of the Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS), a secure computer system for the storage, retrieval and display of diagnostic images such as X-rays and CT scans.

Health Minister Don McMorris, who was among the many dignitaries present for the launch and demonstration of PACS, said the system is a significant advancement in health care for Lloydminster.

“It brings Lloydminster up to where some of the other facilities are in the province, whether it’s Saskatoon, Swift Current or now North Battleford. Lloydminster is on the leading edge with this PACS announcement,” he said.

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Robb Fenton - Staff Writer

The way the Lloydminster Midget Twins have been playing this season, a tie would seem like a loss, but that wasn’t the case on Monday night.

The Twins scored four times in the bottom of the seventh inning to erase a 9-5 deficit and tied the Mervin Flyers 9-9 after eight innings at Legion Ball Park.

“That’s the bright spot, we came back. We scored four runs in the bottom of the seventh, we got lots of walks in there, the guys were patient at the plate and made something happen,” Twins head coach, Jeff Latos said.

“Our team is one that because they’re young guys, it’s easy for them to give in and to think we’re done, so from that point it’s very encouraging we were able to come back.”

The Twins turned the tables on their opposition, as Latos noted they usually give up leads rather than erase them, this is a building block for the remainder of the season.

“Teams come back from us all the time, it happened the other night,” he said.

Although it was nowhere near a perfect game or one that the Twins are happy with, it does a lot for the team’s confidence to see them tie the game in their last at bat.
“It was good, we made a lot of errors tonight, we should have won easy, but that’s the way it goes,” Latos said.

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Paul Grigaitis - Staff Writer

Up to $8,000 of federal funding is
available to people with permanent
self-identifi ed physical or mental
disabilities intended to help them rejoin
the workforce, said a regional agent
promoting the fund.
Dagmar Hargreaves of Employment
Placement and Support Services based
out of Red Deer acts as an agent for the
Opportunities Fund. Hargreaves was
in Lloydminster this week, informing
various organizations about the federal
funding.
Those suffering from hearing loss,
visual impairments, brain injuries,
mental health issues or any kind of
disability that limits daily activity have

access to the funding without medical

documentation, Hargreaves said.

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Robb Fenton - Staff Writer

They were quick out of the gates and didn’t let up as the Border City Blue Jays cruised to a 13-5 win over the Mervin Flyers this past Tuesday at Legion Ball Park.
The Jays used big innings in the third and fourth, scoring eight of their runs en route to their seventh win of the season.
“It was a good game, we got on the bats early, came out to win, we got our hits and our runs. We jumped out to an early lead and that was it, we won the ball game,” Jays’ starting pitcher Clayton Ermel said.
Ermel went seven strong innings for the win, striking out six Flyers.
“We did everything right tonight, we hit well, we fielded well and everything came together,” he said.
Flyers’ coach, Stuart Macnab was disappointed with the loss, but added it was one bad inning that caused all the problems.
“We started out very well, we got some outs from Jon Conacher, then it got away from us,” he said. “They got some runs in the fourth inning and a few errors here and there, a couple of seeing-eye singles got us back on our heels and we couldn’t quite recover.”

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Two-year-old Ice Bourassa and his grandpa, Hector Bourassa, checked out the planes this Sunday at the Lloydminster Airport. The Lloydminster Flying Club celebrated Father’s Day with breakfast and plane rides. - Katie Ryan Photo

Colin Budd - Staff Writer

It was a welcome sight for the local agriculture community as the skies finally opened up over the weekend, dousing much of the Midwest with over 20 millimetres of precipitation.

“I think the rain that you got is going to help the annual crops, particularly the late seeded annual crops,” said Sask. Agriculture crop specialist Grant McLean.

The last Saskatchewan Crop Report – released June 15 – showed that most of what was planted was still reported to be in good shape across the province. That, however, was untrue in this area, where dry conditions in the spring were pushing more and more into the poor category.  The weekend’s rain should be in time to save them though.

“I think certainly the precipitation you got the last weekend is more than welcome,” said McLean.

McLean said it should also help perking up pasture land, which has also taken a beating this spring.

“I think anyone that looks at seeding some supplementary annual forage will have at least some moisture now to get that started.”

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Robb Fenton - Staff Writer

If defence wins championships, the Lloydminster Vandals are poised for a title run in 2009.

Coming off two big wins, where they piled up 78 points, the Vandals switched gears and shutout the Edmonton Stallions 14-0 Sunday, thanks to a stellar defensive effort at Armstrong Field in poor conditions.

The Vandals have only surrendered 18 points in three games and sit with a perfect 3-0 record after handing the Stallions their first loss of the season.

“It was a great defensive battle out here, field position was a huge key,” Vandals defensive back, Cole Payne said. “They had turnovers and us defensively, we made some plays ourselves like that interception for a touchdown, it was huge. It gave us that extra cushion.”

Payne recovered a fumble and had an interception he returned for over 40 yards for a touchdown that sealed the win for the Vandals.

Payne’s score was only the second of the game, as the Vandals connected early and late to grab the win.

“They couldn’t capitalize on the turnovers they got and the turnovers we got, we were able to capitalize and get seven points out of it, so it was good that way,” Payne explained.

The Stallions had scored 75 points in two games heading into their meeting with the Vandals, so Payne and the defence knew they would be in tough.

Although conditions likely played a factor, both teams had to battle the elements and the Vandals were able to use it to their advantage on defence.

“We were loving it,” Payne said of the weather and the challenge his team had against the Stallions.

“This is defensive football weather. It’s fun playing in the mud, you dream of it when you’re a kid. We haven’t beat these guys in a couple years so it feels pretty good.”

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Colin Budd - Staff Writer

When Richard Van Ee checked the rain gauge at his farm south of Vermilion on Tuesday morning after a quick rainfall the night before, it showed two tenths of an inch had fallen. It brought the season’s total to, well, two tenths.

The lack of precipitation in the County of Vermilion River is now past the point of concern to reaching a crisis point. There likely won’t be a hay crop, pastures are in jeopardy and grains and oil seeds are behind, projected to be less than average production-wise. And that is as long as they didn’t have too much frost damage.

On Monday, the County passed a resolution declaring itself a drought area and implored the levels of government to lend a hand.

“There’s no grass, there’s no hay, it’s just a complete disaster out there,” said Van Ee, who serves as reeve. “We thought it was time the government realized our farming community is really suffering.”

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Paul Grigaitis - Staff Writer

Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff have agreed to a deal that would prevent a summer election, according to several media reports yesterday morning.

The deal includes the creation of a panel to review employment insurance policies and also an opposition day in the House of Commons this fall that would allow the opposition to call a non-confidence motion and potentially defeat the government at that time, reports said.

Talks of a possible election — what would be Canada’s fourth in the past five years — heated up on Parliament Hill Monday when Ignatieff pushed the minority Conservative government for  progress on employment insurance, accountable stimulus spending and a plan to get out of a deficit. Ignatieff threatened to defeat the government this week if he wasn’t satisfied.

Lloydminster Mayor Ken Baker said now is the wrong time for a federal election.

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Robb Fenton - Staff Writer

It was an old fashioned pitchers’ duel at Legion Ball Park Tuesday night and fortunately for the Lloydminster midget Twins, their pitcher won the duel.

Jason Fechter threw a complete game no-hitter which was joined by 13 strikeouts as the Twins shutout the Border City Blue Jays, 3-0.

Pat Pettman was on the hill for the Jays and didn’t surrender an earned run, but took the loss.

“I thought we played pretty good. We had a couple of errors, but it didn’t affect us very much, we stayed positive kept going and moved on from our mistakes and got on the sticks pretty good,” Fechter said after his dominating outing.

“We got a couple runs, could have had a couple more, but I’m happy with our performance.”

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