City denies Co-op's request for bus terminal

City council unanimously rejected an application by the Weyburn Co-op to relocate the STC bus terminal to the Co-op's Food Store location, as council sided with a large group of area residents expressing their concerns for the proposal.

The terminal had been located at the Shell gas station for several years, but are now looking to find a new location. In rejecting the Co-op Food Store, more than one councillor indicated their wish for STC to have a terminal here in Weyburn, but to find a more suitable location.

Before describing what the neighbourhood's objections were, Mayor Debra Button noted they wanted a private closed-door meeting with council, and not in the open public portion of the meeting so that residents of the city could hear their points; council went along with this request, and met with them along with Don Kraft and Jerry Ponto of the Weyburn Co-op and STC representatives.

Mayor Button read out some of the points the area residents made in opposition to the terminal, including firstly that parking is already a problem in the food store parking lot and this would only make the problem worse, as well as making Second Street and Coteau Avenue even busier than they are now.

They also felt there will be people loitering at the bus terminal; there will be buses idling at the terminal five times a day, there will be safety risks to pedestrians in the area, and they felt property values will drop in the region due to the location of a bus terminal there.

Doug Mulhall, manager of community services, noted STC buses have a large turning radius, and asked STC if their buses could handle smaller turning-radius intersections along their proposed route; "they have responded that they are confident their drivers will be able to routinely and safely navigate through the proposed route."

In moving to reject the application for a development permit, Coun. Dick Michel said, "I feel we do need the STC in the city, but I can't support it at that location."

"I do have to agree with the concerns brought up by the residents. One of the biggest issues is the off-loading of passengers I see a problem with it in that area. I don't know that this is the best place for it," said Coun. Andy Broccolo.

Coun. Bill Rudachyk agreed, and commented, "My biggest concern without a doubt is safety at the east entrance to the Co-op and the west entrance to the Credit Union. That is already a major traffic problem that will only get worse."

He added that he wants to see bus service to Weyburn by STC, "but there has to be more done to find a location more suitable for that purpose."

"I feel the area is congested as it is," agreed Mayor Button, noting the controversy that putting a gas bar there created, and said, "We've taxed that area enough."

As promised in late 2010, council appointed a brand new Weyburn Housing Advisory Committee to carry out a needs and demand assessment for the city of what current housing needs are.

The committee will include facilitator chair pastor Jay Mowchenko, Ministerial representative Martin Olson, Salvation Army representative Lt. Mike Mailman, Community Low Income Centre rep Cam Weber, Weyburn Housing rep Myron Fletcher, and contractor John Hulbert, along with Mayor Button, Coun Broccolo and city manager Bob Smith. More members are being sought for the committee in the coming months.

Smith explained that initially the city thought there would be funds available through the CMHC to do a needs and demand assessment, but no such funds are available; thus the city put funding for the study in their 2011 budget, and the study will be carried out over the next three to four months.

He noted Saskatoon has had such a committee in place for about five years, and as such Weyburn will be able to borrow some of their research and ideas.

Once the survey is done, he said, "then we'll set a plan based on what we need and how we can achieve that."

The hope is by the end of the year to have a solid plan in place, "so any developer can come to us and we can direct them to whatever programs are out there," he said.

Mayor Button also noted Weyburn is the only city in the southeast to have made this much progress on the issue of housing.

A proposed extension to a runway at city's airport at North Weyburn will not take place, as it was determined that it would make little to no difference to users of the airport.

The City engaged Stantec Engineering to conduct an extension feasibility study to extend Runway 12-30 from 1,219m to 1,500m, with the cost to lengthen and widen the runway (and to strengthen the pavement structure of the runway) estimated at $5.568 million, not including engineering costs.

In interviews Stantec held with users of the airport, 13 of the 17 current users said the existing runway was meeting their needs, and 10 users said if the runway was extended, there would be no change in the aircraft used. The survey also revealed there would be no major increase in air traffic.

The study was discussed at the airport board, and it was decided that it is not feasible to perform the upgrades at this time.

Coun. Michel added the board is going to have a look at putting in a GPS system, which a number of airport users have indicated would be valuable for their use.

"We need to lobby the federal and provincial governments for funding," he added.

As a follow-up to the visit to Ukraine by Mayor Button, a delegation of five Ukrainian municipal officials will be in Weyburn for their next council meeting on Monday, Jan. 24.

Mayor Button said an agenda is being worked on right now, but the plan is to have the Family Place cater a Ukrainian food supper to the council and the delegation, and to set an open house time for residents of the community to come and meet the delegates, who will have a translator along to help with communications.

Mayor Button spent seven days in Ukraine to help kick off a five-year mission on behalf of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) to assist municipalities in Ukraine make upgrades and improvements in their system of government.