At the recent council meeting, Esterhazy town council passed a motion to go forward with 4x8 signs for the West sign corridor—for both corridor and A and B—after previously only having 8x8 signs in the corridor.
In May, the council began discussions on what the best option going forward would be for the sign corridor with over 12 businesses on the waiting list—one business has been on the list since 2011—and wanting to provide more businesses with the opportunity to advertise on the sign corridor.
Currently the West sign corridor has room for eight 8x8 signs with six up—three of which are for businesses that would like to update their signs if possible.
The council wanted to create space for more signs, but to extend the corridor for more 8x8 signs the town would have to apply with an application to the government.
With the businesses that currently have signs on the corridor, none are under contract and making the switch to 4x8 would provide them with the opportunity to update their signs.
The driving force behind the decision to move to 4x8 signs was the ability to create space for more business to put up signs and to have consistency throughout the corridor rather than keep the current 8x8 signs while adding 4x8 signs.
Timeout Eatery proposal
During a delegation owners of Timeout Eatery, Jessica Yablonski and Crystal Meekins, proposed to council plans for expanding their business with a seasonal building in the area of the D.A. Mackenzie Aquatic Centre.
The building would be on skids to allow it to be moved when not in use out of season. The plan is to have it operating in the summer months when the pool is in use.
“They have their current business downtown and they’re looking at expanding their business,” said Acting Administrator Mike Thorley. “They have their current building at 410 Main Street and want to have the option of putting up another building near the pool during the summer months.
“Some of the stumbling blocks are with the area they’re proposing not being zoned to have a commercial business. We have it as a community services area.
“It’s not the same as if someone leased out the concession at the golf course because it’s our building.
“They’re proposing a new building, but with their request we’re going to do the research to find out if it’s feasible and what we’d have to do for logistics if it is feasible. We need to do our research to see if it’s a possibility.
“If they’re given the go to put the temporary building there and we enter into an agreement, we still have to look at the logistics of power, water, and the whole entire thing,” said Thorley. “It’s a great proposal, but on the flip side, there’s a lot more to it.”
The council has tabled a decision for the time being and will revisit the proposal at a future meeting.
Rec facility update
Rec Director Brenda Redman says it was a good year at the D.A. Mackenzie Aquatic Centre despite the impact of Covid-19 on staffing and ultimately not being able to have swimming lessons.
The aquatic centre closed on August 31, but went out with a splash according to Redman.
“We had a fantastic dog swim and it was amazing,” said Redman. “Everybody loved it and I recommend doing it again for next year. The dogs were having so much fun.”
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Esterhazy farmers market has been held at the S.N. Boreen Centre this year—the last day of the market was September 11. Redman said that even with the adjustments and health and safety protocol it was a great year for the market.
“I’m encouraging the farmers market to start their own committee,” said Redman. “I feel they need to have one to make their own decisions.”
In a normal year, the farmers market is held at the Esterhazy Museum, but with a need for more space to ensure physical distancing the market was moved to the S.N. Boreen Centre.
“Many of them were happy with the new location, but some prefer the museum,” said Redman. “If they have a committee they would be able to make the decision on where it will be held going forward rather than going through council. With the extra space this year they were able to have more vendors, last Friday there were 22. If they have a committee they’ll be able to run and mandate it and have more control over decision making.”
With the Dana Antal Arena opening this week, Redman is ecstatic with the work the staff has done leading up to September.
“They’ve worked so hard to get it ready for opening,” Redman said. “The painting all looks great and getting the ice ready has been smooth. We’ll have no problem opening September 14 or 15.”
The opening won’t look like most years though with specific health and safety protocols in place for Covid-19.
“Our guidelines for the arena follow directly what the SHA and provincial government have handed down,” said Redman. “We’re going to follow them exactly.”
As of September, it’s no longer a requirement for people to dress before entering the arena, but the council recommends still following that protocol as an extra precaution.
The Dana Antal Arena will also see a rate increase of approximately four per cent this season. The minor hockey and figure skating rate will increase from $82 to $85 per hour, recreational hockey is increasing from $110 to $115 per hour, senior hockey games are increasing from $400 to $420 per game, senior hockey practices/rentals are increasing from $110 to $115.
The S.N. Boreen Centre will also see an approximately four per cent increase in rates as a result of Covid-19 specific health and safety protocols.
“The increase on the S.N. Boreen Centre was more to cover some of the increased cleaning fees,” said Acting Administrator Mike Thorley. “There’s a slight increase and some of that is due to additional Covid-19 related cleaning.”
Fire protection service agreement
The council passed a motion for the Town of Esterhazy to enter into an agreement with the RM of Spy Hill and Village of Spy Hill to provide fire services to the area when extra support is needed.
A request was sent in August from the RM of Spy Hill and Village of Spy Hill asking to be apart of a fire protection service agreement with the Town of Esterhazy.
By having the agreement in place it alleviates the concerns with liability insurance if the Esterhazy fire department went to Spy Hill to provide support.
“We have a mutual agreement with a lot of this area, but this is directly to the Village of Spy Hill and RM of Spy Hill,” said Acting Administrator Mike Thorley.
“We can cross the territorial border and still be able to be covered by liability and if we got a request to go someone would pay for that to happen.”
Land sold to RM of Spy Hill
The council passed a motion to sell their share of land they mutually own with the RM of Spy Hill to the RM of Spy Hill for $10,000.
The land has a well on it, but the Town of Esterhazy has no use for it.
“We had an agreement in place with the RM of Spy Hill that we owned a joint piece of land that has a well on it,” said Acting Administrator Mike Thorley.
“Years ago the municipality of Esterhazy was looking at having their new water source brought from that area—from this well. After a bunch of research they found the well wasn’t going to be able to provide enough water to the municipality of Esterhazy.
“We’ve had no use for it over the last few years so we went to the RM of Spy Hill to see if they’d like to purchase our share of the land. They passed a resolution to offer $10,000 and we accepted.”
Library preparing to open
The Esterhazy Public Library is preparing to open to the public in the near future.
The need for extra cleaning protocol and sanitization poses new challenges for the library staff.
Currently the staff is working on Covid-19 specific guidelines to allow for safe use of the facility.
“They’re working really hard to get it ready,” said Rec Director Brenda Redman.
