View from the Cheap Seats is an extension of the newsroom, which is frequently a site of heated debate on topics ranging from the extremely serious to the utterly ridiculous. In addition to the views of our three regular columnists Thom Barker, Calvin Daniels and Randy Brenzen printed here, please visit yorktonthisweek.com for additional web exclusive content by Michaela Miller and Devin Wilger.
This week: What one project would you like to see the City of Yorkton accomplish this year?
Limited dollars
You would think that listing things that I would like to see the City undertake this year would be easy.
I suppose I could just list a bunch of ‘big dream; items, starting the process to move the rail lines out of the city for example, but I am a realist too. That particular item is about as ‘pie in the sky’ as you can get in terms of places the City might invest tens of millions of dollars they don’t have and taxpayers would have little interest in coming up with in terms of huge tax increases from now until I’m too old to care.
The idea of a redo of Broadway Street falls into much the same area.
That all said neither project is exactly what I would add to the list of projects the City has budgeted for in 2016.
I am realist enough to understand dollars for a new project would be limited at best, so extravagance is out of the question.
So I’m going to be modest in my suggestion.
The Yorkton Terriers are making a pitch to host the Royal Bank Cup in 2018. The city has much in its favour to attract the national Junior ‘A’ Championship back to Yorkton, (it was last here in 1999).
However, dressing rooms at the Farrell Agencies Arena are at best cramped and out-of-date, and at worst simply disgraceful in terms of a community like ours.
New dressing rooms for the RBC should be a priority.
And even if the Terrier bid falls short new dressing rooms are a much needed upgrade to the local arena.
- Calvin Daniels
Obvious Answer
I’m going to have to say the most obvious answer since it’s also pretty important: our roads. And not all of our roads for 2017; that would be impossible. It’s tiring to dodge potholes on every road as I’m driving to work though. When they do go to fix it, it is simply filled in and paved over. This is great for about a week, and as soon as we get moisture, it cracks open once again. Instead of throwing money at quick fixes, we should be assessing our needs and assessing our ground. We could test different road surfaces on a couple of roads and see how they stand up to our Yorkton climate. The concrete road we have on Broadway St. E by the mall is so nice. It’s expensive, but I have yet to see cracks or problems of any kinds. If we invest now, we won’t have to complain in years to come.
- Michaela Miller
Get it right this time
I have lived in Yorkton for around seven years now, and if there has been one consistent problem in the city in that time it’s been the underpass on Darlington. Seemingly every year, work takes place to fix the pavement problems on that stretch of road. It doesn’t take very long and the problem resurfaces, with bubbling pavement showing up to again try to rip off any vulnerable parts of a vehicle’s undercarriage. This year the old problem has reared its ugly head and now Darlington near the underpass is again in a sorry state. For the sake of anyone who drives down that stretch of road regularly – myself included – I hope that the city has finally figured out what is wrong with that road and finally fix it permanently.
But the solution for Darlington, whatever it winds up being, is important for reasons beyond that one stretch of road. The city has a lot of road projects on the go – the massive Dracup reconstruction, the even more massive inevitable Broadway reconstruction – and I’m sure that the city wants to see these roads finished and then not look at them again for a few decades. The worst case scenario is that we see the Darlington problem appear on these roads, something we definitely do not want to see. As taxpayers we want them to get it right the first time so our tax dollars can be spent on something else, and I imagine the administration wants to do it properly for the same reason – it remains resources that could be better used on countless other projects in the city, especially as infrastructure all over town begins to age and degrade. If there’s one thing I want the city of Yorkton to finally get right, it’s that small patch of road that is a great big headache. I suspect that I’ll be waiting for this to happen as long as I live in this city, but I’ll be optimistic that they figure it out.
- Devin Wilger
Amen
The one thing I would like to see the City of Yorkton accomplish this year is the elimination of prayer at municipal events.
The Supreme Court has ruled it is unconstitutional. The Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission has ruled it is inappropriate.
Saskatoon and Regina have done the right thing and it is time—in fact, the time has long passed—for Yorkton to follow suit.
And no, it is not appropriate to replace the Christian prayer with a non-denominational prayer or a rotating prayer. The second biggest group in Canada next to Christians is “nones,” i.e., atheists, agnostics and other non-believers. Governments are supposed to represent ALL the people not just the majority faith or the faithful in general.
This only applies to government. The religious can march in the streets to proclaim their faith. They can shout it from the rooftops. They can publish in this newspaper (to wit, Kathleen Gibson’s Sunny Side Up column). They can proclaim it over the airwaves on Yorkton’s Christian radio station. And they can worship to their hearts’ content in the dozens of churches in Yorkton.
It simply does not belong in government. Period.
-Thom Barker
