At their regular meeting on Wednesday, Rocanville Town Council passed a motion to pay for part of the water damage at 119 Ellice Street where Shear Success is located after a big rain in July caused water to come into the back of the building and cause damage
Heather Tremblay, a hairdresser who owns and operates Shear Success, approached council about the water damage and about covering part of the cost.
Tremblay approached council because the back alley behind the buildings on Ellice Street is higher than the properties and the town promised to do some drainage work on the back alleys a few years ago, but the work never got done.
Tremblay brought an estimate of $6,400 to the town for the damage that was incurred in July, and council passed a motion to pay $3,200 towards the repairs.
Pool employee hired by town
Sue-Wellyn Sadler, who has served as a long-time pool manager during the summer, has accepted a position with the town to work with public works and work at the rink.
The new position will have Sadler working for the public works department and helping at the rink when needed. She will still run the pool in the summer.
“Because of her knowledge of chemicals at the pool, we can also use her at our water treatment plant as a back up person,” said Administrator Monica Pethick.
“She’ll be good. She will be an asset,” said Councillor Marcel Gagnon.
Her start date will be Oct. 13.
Golf club grey water line extension approved
The town’s grey waterline currently ends at the Rocanville Motel, but will be extended across the street under the mine road towards the Rocanville Town and Country Golf Club.
This will make it possible for the golf club to hook into the town’s grey waterline.
The town will bear the cost of this line extension in lieu of a donation towards the golf club.
Building permits approved
The town approved two building permits on Wednesday. One was for L.C. Auto, who will be expanding their retail business, Bumper to Bumper, on Highway 8.
The other building permit was granted to Larry Leclair to move a portable garden shed onto his private property situated at 108 Pelly Street.
Managing facility rental risks
SUMAssure sent the town of Rocanville a notice that the insurance company will not cover any claims that arise due to Covid-19.
SUMAssure stated that most insurers are now excluding any claims related to pandemics and communicable diseases from liability coverage, which means that any legal action against the municipality as it relates to Covid-19 or future pandemics would be denied under the terms of the insurance policy.
Therefore in order to protect the town against liability, the town needs to have a policy in place that states the guidelines established by the Government of Saskatchewan and the Saskatchewan Health Authority. Anyone who wants to rent the facilities from the town has to sign a waiver saying they will adhere to the guidelines.
“Then if somebody does try to sue us saying that it (guidelines adherence) wasn’t done, we can go back to the renter saying, ‘You signed the policy saying you would adhere to this,’ ” said Administrator Monica Pethick.
MEEP amendment
A resolution to send a MEEP funds amendment to the Government of Saskatchewan was passed.
The MEEP funds that were going to be used for buttresses at the east wall of the town pool need to be diverted to the Qu’Appelle Avenue recap.
The town initially thought that the east wall at the town pool was pushing eastwards. Therefore the MEEP funds allocated to the town by the provincial government for investments in infrastructure was going to be used for the installation of buttresses to make that wall more stable.
“We have since looked at it and the east wall is not moving,” said Administrator Monica Pethick.
It seems that the interior of the building is sinking and that buttresses will not solve that problem.
“To change where we spend that (MEEP) money, we have to send in an amendment to the government saying this is what we are doing instead,” said Pethick.
Block 56 sub-division
The town sold part of Block 56 that sits between Railway Avenue and Qu’Appelle Avenue to Shawn Davison for $3,000.
The town will cover 50 per cent of the subdivision cost and has also granted Davison permission to have a temporary living accommodation on site. The temporary living accommodation will be allowed for a maximum of three years.
“The RM used to have a shop there and when they moved to their new location, they gave us the shop. We have to subdivide it before we can sell the land,” said Administrator Monica Pethick.
Davison will build a facility to test the emissions of wood burning stoves.
2019 surplus put into reserves
The town of Rocanville had an unexpected surplus of $303,000 in 2019—more than budgeted—after receiving additional gas tax funding from the federal government.
At their meeting Wednesday council decided that $255,000 of that surplus will be put in reserves, while some of the gas tax money will be used on projects this year. $115,000 will be put into a water and sewer reserve, $95,000 will be put into a property maintenance reserve, and $45,000 will go into the machinery maintenance reserve.
The remainder of the surplus will be used for a retention pond behind Rocanville Motel, and an off-leash dog park on land east of Robin Avenue. The retention pond is being built to alleviate flooding that happens on Robin Avenue when it rains.
Town purchases snow blade
The town elected to buy a 4N1 snow blade for $17,096 from Brandt Tractor limited. There were two tenders—one from Brandt and the other from Universe Satellite sales. The blade will be attached to the town’s John Deere loader to remove snow in the winter.
