Parkland College expansion city highlight in 2014

Looking back at 2014 Yorkton Mayor Bob Maloney said the highlight was pretty easy to pick.

“Turning the sod on the Parkland College building,” he said in his year-end interview with Yorkton This Week.

Maloney said the new college building is huge for the city and region, and fits with his personal vision.

“I’ve always believed in education,” he said, noting he had educational opportunities in the city as a goal dating back to when he first ran for Yorkton Council.

“I think this can be a pillar of the community for many years to come,” he said.

 In that regard the Mayor said the new college facility has always been seen by its proponents as a cornerstone for the region.

“We’ve always talked about it being a legacy project,” he said.

While Yorkton Council was not the main push behind the building, Maloney said “wheels needed to be turned,” as the process of approval moved forward, and the city was eager to play its role.

Maloney said it is now important the classrooms are full and the facility well-utilized if future phases are to move forward.

However, with the cost of students moving to larger centres such as Saskatoon and Regina for education, and the ability to create relevant local courses, he does not think utilization will be an issue.

Next on the list was drainage for Maloney.

“We continue to invest millions in drainage,” he said, adding “it’s all climate driven.”

Maloney said the July 1 storm in 2010 may have pushed the issue to the top of the City’s priority list, but repeated heavy rain events, including this summer, has shown the investment has been a good one.

Maloney said while there was still flooding this summer, he believes it would have been far worse had the existing work not already been carried out. He noted when he drove by the containment ponds after the June ending rains they worked as expected.

“The investment we made really showed dividends this year,” he said.

And so moving forward “we have to continue that work,” said Maloney.

The Yorkton Terriers winning a national Junior ‘A’ title also made Maloney’s list.

“That was a terrific thing for the local club,” he said.

It was also a springboard to something that might be on the list in the months ahead, work at the local arena.

Maloney said he would like to see the City cooperating with the Terriers in new dressing rooms, an area of the Farrell Agencies Arena he called an “embarrassment”.

However, 2015, will be much a hold-the-line, status quo one, admitted the Mayor.

While the province has implemented a reasonable revenue sharing system with municipalities, additional dollars for major projects, such as the near $50 million redo of Broadway Street, are almost non-existent.

“They say ‘you’ve got revenue sharing, fix it yourself’,” said Maloney, adding that makes larger projects very hard to carry forward.

So spending has to be carefully planned, and balanced.

“We have to try not to lose the fun stuff,” said Maloney, noting things such as walking trails, and parks may not seem like crucial spending, but they are things which help make a community.