There are some issues which seem to perennially come before City Council, and in Yorkton that issue is what will happen with the old mill.
The fate of the mill was back before Council at its last regular meeting Nov. 14, where the old city landmark was given a begrudging stay of execution.
At the meeting Council was presented with a recommendation from City Administration that would have given a local citizen's committee the opportunity to conduct research on the building and organize fund raising, in order to try to save the building. The recommendation also suggested the committee be given 18-months to carry out their efforts before reporting back to Council.
Given the processes usually associated with applying for, and being awarded grants, and the work needed in simply conducting a feasibility study, an 18-month timeline was likely to be a tight one.
Initially Councillor Les Arnelien was ready to follow the recommendation, stating to his credit "I think it's important to preserve our past."
But it became clear the rest of Council was more interested in squeezing the timeline.
In fact some, including Coun. Ross Fisher were obviously ready to drop the wrecking ball now. "I'd just as soon bite the bullet and deal with it," he said.
Coun. Chris Wyatt agreed "this has gone on a long time," in terms of the fate of the old mill, and he too wanted a quicker resolution than the proposed 18-months.
There was some discussion that the tighter timeline was wise so that the mill would not be an issue for the next Council, with an election next fall, although that is an excuse which rings rather hollow since issues often crossover election timelines, examples are the storm water projects, and the recently completed water treatment plant.
A report prepared by C.A. Reed & Associates (Sask.) Ltd. for the City suggested preserving artifacts from the building in some form or another and then to demolish the building and Council seemed ready to follow that recommendation.
The citizen's committee hoping to save the mill had however identified the need for time to have a heritage engineer conduct an assessment of the building. Historical buildings are obviously unique structures and require some specialization in their assessment.
It was pointed out to Council funding for this assessment was identified as coming from provincial or federal heritage grants but authorization in the form of a letter would be required from the city as the landowner. Any applications for grant programs will have to be made next year because deadlines have passed.
In the end Council tightened the screws on the committee requiring the report before next fall's election, leaving them about a 12-month window to save the mill.
It is to be hoped they succeed, or this Council's legacy might be as the destroyers of what is the oldest building in the city, and a tie to the very roots of Yorkton.
