Estevan city council will have more open meetings in 2021.
Council was presented with the proposed meeting schedule at Monday night’s session.
The schedule calls for a proposed budget meeting on Jan. 11, and the first regular meeting would be Jan. 25. There would be one meeting in February, March, April, July, September, October and December, and two meetings in May, June and August. A 2022 budget meeting is scheduled for November.
Councillor Shelly Veroba called for additional meetings, saying that cities like Weyburn and Yorkton meet more than Estevan. She would like to see second meetings in March, April, September, October and December.
“With four people being new on council, I find that with the one meeting a month, you almost feel out of the loop, per se,” said Veroba.
Councillor Kirsten Walliser, one of the new members on council, said she has a lot of questions, and if there are more meetings, it gives the potential for more engagement with information they have.
“It also puts us back in front of the community every two weeks, increasing the ability for the community to keep up with the information being presented,” said Walliser.
Mayor Roy Ludwig said he’s not sure how much information they would have for the meetings, but they can always cancel a meeting if there isn’t enough on the agenda.
Council met once a month from January to September in 2020, with a couple of special meetings to discuss topics that came up. They did not meet in October due to the civic election, but they have met three times since.
The revamped schedule will be released at a later date.
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The city will continue to have memberships with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) and the Southeast Transportation Planning Committee.
The FCM membership is $2,923.67, based on a per capita rate and a base fee for population. FCM lobbies the federal government on numerous issues throughout the year.
The transportation committee has members from different urban and rural municipalities in the region, and addresses highway and transportation needs in the region. The city’s fee is $660.
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A 10 per cent penalty for all taxes that are unpaid after Dec. 31 will not be collected this year.
The city has a variety of incentives for those who pay early, and penalties for those who pay late. Taxes unpaid on Dec. 1 have a penalty of 3 1/2 per cent, and the penalty would traditionally grow to 10 per cent at the end of the year.
In a report to council, tax assessor Trina Sieben said with the ongoing pandemic, the city’s administration continues to receive inquiries about assistance.
Council had previously waived penalties for unpaid taxes in August and September.
City manager Jeff Ward said the 10 per cent penalty is the one that people are concerned about, and there wouldn’t be an additional penalty for unpaid taxes until August 2021.
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The water treatment plant chemical tenders for 2021 were awarded.
The liquid chlorine tender went to ClearTech for $21,523.11, potassium permanganate also went to Clear Tech for $20,664, ammonium sulfate went to Klearwater for $14,752.50, and hydrofluosillic acid went to Klearwater for $10,046.73.
Now that Rafferty Dam is the primary water source, the city will no longer need caustic soda. This was used as for pH adjustment and the Rafferty water is higher in pH.
Also, aluminum sulphate was not tendered, but the city will still need to use some form of this type of chemical inside the plant.
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Five building permits worth $181,900 were issued in November, bringing the total for the year to 52 permits worth $3.9 million. The value for the building permits is more than double the $1.93 million seen in the first 11 months of 2019.
November generated one commercial permit worth $80,000, one industrial permit for $44,000 and three miscellaneous permits for $57,000.
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Councillor Lindsay Clark wanted to know the procedure for when people bring forward concerns to city hall, and if there was a spreadsheet on whether their concerns have been addressed. Someone had approached him previously about a concern that wasn’t addressed. Ludwig noted that if someone has concerns, usually they contact him or Ward.
Ludwig also suggested there could be a complaints area on the city website.
