The reeve and council for the RM of Weyburn listened to a presentation from a representative of the Sask. Watershed Authority about drainage issues, which may come up this spring, depending on how much water accumulates from the winter.
Dwayne Siba was on hand from the Watershed Authority at their monthly council meeting on Wednesday to give the presentation, in which he talked about what constitutes permitted drainage, and what sort of drainage can be done without a need for a permit.
"It kind of became an important issue this past year, because of the flooding, as some drainage done over the years has not been permitted," said Reeve Carmen Sterling, adding some drainage work may have been done on properties that neither they or the Watershed Authority were even aware of, and which became an issue when the flood waters came along.
"I'm sure there are lots of spots that will still have standing water in the spring, so we're trying to get ahead of the game," said the reeve."Even municipalities can apply to do drainage projects. We may be put in that position, where there is standing water where there's no outlet to drain it," she added.
With the upcoming SARM convention in March, the RM council is working on a resolution to address their ongoing problem with the Weyburn Golf Club.The RM has had a long-time difficulty in that there is nothing in legislation under which the Golf Club can fall as a property classification; as a result, they are forced to go under an inappropriate classification like commercial, and the RM either has to abate the taxes, or reduce them in some way, which in turn causes a problem with ratepayers, said the reeve.
What the RM is proposing instead is go the way Manitoba has on this issue, and have a recreational tax class for property."We think that would be beneficial for us to adjust the mill rate. I think ratepayers could understand that," said Reeve Sterling, so that "what they're taxed and billed for is what they're paying."
Otherwise, she said, "we really have exhausted all other avenues to solve the matter. To me, it makes good sense to have a class they could be placed into. We're doing research on it (before submitting the resolution)."
She noted that councillors Heather Cugnet and Maureen Clay will join her for the entire convention, to be held Mar. 13-15, while other councillors will attend for a day or so.
There were a number of development-related issues that arose at council.
The RM has signed a development agreement with a developer who will make eight industrial lots across the highway from the Crossroads Industrial Park. The new park will be located north of Highway 13 behind Main Track, with two of the lots already spoken for by farm implement dealers.
Meantime, in Crossroads, an owner of two lots wants to subdivide them into five lots, and an owner of a lot in Evanston Industrial Park also wants to subdivide; these two requests have both been forwarded to the Weyburn District Planning Commission for comments.
A request for land to be annexed from the RM into the City of Weyburn had been approved by the RM council. Reeve Sterling said, "This is an example of what the commission is able to do for us, where they can help a developer. We're hoping that will continue to happen with the commission."
She added that the RM has always maintained they are not in competition with the city, but they want to work cooperatively with them to help each other; in this instance, it will work best for that property to be annexed into the city from the RM.
In addition to the convention, Reeve Sterling noted there are a number of meetings coming up that are of interest to the RM, including one on building code standards, and two put on by the SE Enterprise Region, one on water management, and one on EMOs (Emergency Measures Organization); a member of council has expressed an interest in the meeting on EMOs, "to make sure we have the right plan in place for the RM."
