A regular meeting of the Weyburn City Council was held on June 13; here are the major points of interest:
*Council heard good and bad news during the monthly building department report. The good news is that the level of construction in the city is near last year's record-setting pace; the bad news is there are currently no residential lots available for sale.
At the end of May, the city issued 81 building permits, worth nearly $13 million, compared to this time last year when 71 building permits worth $13.5 were issued.
In May, there were nine dwelling units added to the year-to-date total, which now stands at 32 dwelling units, worth over $8 million. Last year at this time, 16 dwellings were created, worth $4.1 million.
Manager of Community Services Doug Mulhall told Council that the creation of new residential lots has been affected by the wet weather, "We were hoping to have water and sewer crews back here a month ago."
The City has sold one commercial and one industrial lot, bringing lot sales to 27 for the year, compared to 38 a year ago.
*Council approved a tax levy for the owners of Travelodge Hotel, who are undertaking a major renovation project this year.
In a letter signed by John Siourounis, one of the owners of the Travelodge, an explanation of the renovations was given; it includes the removal of the older parts of the operation, including El Rancho Restaurant and Connections banquet room, and replacing it with a four-story, 54-motel room structure, three new meeting rooms, a boardroom and new restaurant.
The tax concession will be based on the increase in the tax levy of the new facility over their current levy.
*After years of negotiation, Council passed a bylaw to make taxation fairer for owners of large corner lots.
Under the new bylaw, corner lots will be subject to a two-tier tax rate, with the first 150 feet of frontage exempt and the remaining frontage taxed at the usual rate. The precise wording of the bylaw was achieved after lengthy fine-tuning between the City and the Saskatchewan Municipal Board. The new bylaw will mainly affect commercial and large multi-unit residential lots. Single residential lots will typically fall underneath the exempt size limit.
