By Greg Nikkel
The City of Weyburn approved of a new connection fee for supplying water to commercial or industrial properties in the RM of Weyburn, setting it at $25,000 for flows of up to one imperial gallon per minute.
The approval was based on a recommendation from the Weyburn and District Regional Planning Commission, with a calculation for the cost of the water provided by city engineer Sean Abram.
“I congratulate the planning commission for dealing with this,” said Coun. Winston Bailey, asking if this applies to a certain radius, or just for the RM of Weyburn.
Abram noted this was set by the regional planning commission, which is a partnership between the City and RM of Weyburn, so it would only apply in the RM.
The calculation was based on the city’s water charge of $2.20 per cubic metre, and the cost for a water hauler truck to provide a business with 3.273 cubic metres of water every business day, based on a flow of 0.5 imperial gallon per minute.
On this basis, it would cost a business a total of $26,585.75 every year. The cost of water for a year through the Weyburn Utility Board, with a flow of 0.5 imperial gallons per minute, is $1,350.
The City had set the connection fee of $10,000 for residential properties in the RM of Weyburn in October 2015.
Coun. Rob Stephanson had a rant about the dangers of jay-walking at busy intersections, after he witnessed an incident recently.
He told council that on Wednesday, while he was waiting to turn left off Government Road to go back to his office at Cogent, there were three small children who started to jay-walk across the busy street.
“An adult, who I presume was looking after them, told them to stop, and then proceeded to get out of the car and jay-walked with them. That’s one of the busiest intersections we have in the city. They were standing in the middle of the road when a truck approached, and luckily this individual was going slowly enough to stop,” said Coun. Stephanson.
“We have brand new crosswalks painted there. To me, that was very stupid. That’s what crosswalks are for. I don’t want to see anybody run over. If that had been a big truck instead of a half-ton, I’d hate to think what might’ve happened,” he said.
The City held the opening for their new $400,000 spray park at River Park on Saturday, and are preparing to open the new Young Fellows paddling pool at noon on Canada Day, on Friday, July 1.
The Young Fellows committed to funding of $125,000 for the new paddling pool, which will include a zero beach entry, wall sprays in the main pool area and a small retaining wall for the toddlers area.
