HUMBOLDT — While Rob Muench, Humboldt’s mayor, said it’s been a successful 2019 for the city, when pressed on the one item he liked the most, he was quick to answer.
“I'm pretty proud of the fact that we did over a million dollars’ worth of road preservation,” he said. “That's always good to knock those off.”
“We seem to hear that from residents a lot, that they want us to do work on the streets.”
Paving projects included Sixth Avenue, Third Street, Ninth Avenue and Seventh Street.
The mayor said next year, one of the major paving projects in 2020 will be another section of Seventh Street, where water mains were replaced in 2019.
“We're doing the water and sewer first and making sure that's all up to par underneath, then putting in a good base and then paving so that the investment we're doing is going to last,” he said, adding the city doesn’t want to tear up new paving.
Muench said the city worked on a number of capital projects in 2019. Among the more expensive items was a refurbishment of a sewage lift station at $1.1 million. The fixed facility should help the city recover quicker from heavy rain.
“It gives you a little more comfort in some of those storm situations that we know the problems are the past aren't going to happen in some of those areas.”
A ferric odour treatment system was added to reduce the smell from the city’s sewage facilities
“We did have some issues mechanically that the system wasn't up and running for a good chunk of the summer,” Muench said, adding that those problems were fixed by mid-August.
There’s also been projects done in the recreational facilities.
Flooring was replaced in the Aquatic Centre, which revealed further problems with the concrete and rebar underneath that was fixed. A new air handling unit will be installed at a cost of around $421,000 in January.
There’s been some work done to the dressing rooms in the arena.
At Centennial Park, fencing and new dugouts were installed, and efforts to improve drainage at the site were undertaken. Muench said there was one corner of the park that hasn’t been adjusted for drainage due to contractors running out of time before bad weather set in.
The mayor said council was excited that $1.8 million will be spent in 2020 to finish the work at Centennial Park.
“It's going to be good to get that one out of the way and move on to other things that we had on the waiting list for a number of years.
The city also did work on preparing the development of a park north of the hospital. Muench said the city is expecting the results of a survey on the site to be released soon. Five common elements the city has found a demand for are a toboggan hill, an adventure play playground, walking trails, outdoor skating and an off-leash dog park.
Muench also pointed to economic development within the city, including projects like the Peavey Mart expansion, Swan Pizza, PetValu, Sobey’s Liquor and the new Horizon School Division central office. The value of permits issued by the issue this year for both residential and commercial projects was $2.6 million.
The mayor said council is excited to see that BHP will make a final decision on its Jansen project by February 2021.
“At least we know we have a date now and we know that it's not just going to keep getting kicked down the road further and further,” he said.
“Hopefully that will be something that happens and the community is certainly going to benefit economically from that number of jobs that they're expecting”
Muench also noted the first anniversary of the April 6, 2018 Humboldt Broncos collision. He said Carol Brons and Céleste Leray-Leicht, both parents of people who died in the tragedy, did a good job letting people know it’s okay to move forward. Muench said he’s seeing more optimism since that anniversary.
“We always talked about the light at the end of the tunnel and I think that helped,” he said. “The community is really coming together, is moving towards a better place.”
Behind the scenes, the city has been working on how to better market itself, trying to move away from a connection to the collision. The city’s marketing committee is looking at a destination marketing fee for visitors staying at hotels, using the revenue raised to promote the city and attract new events.
On the fiscal side, the city has been working on making sure that there’s a fully funded reserves and a fleet replacement fund so that the city can pay for its projects without borrowing from the bank.
“What we've done in the last couple of years is because we're paying off our back debt, that we're able to use that money for projects as opposed to going out and borrowing money,” Muench said.
The mayor said he’s excited for 2020.
“We had a pretty progressive budget we put together,” he said, adding that the city isn’t planning to raise taxes as high as some other places.
