By Greg Nikkel
Mayor Marcel Roy talked about the state of the City of Weyburn in an address to the Rotary Club on Thursday, and he answered questions from club members on issues ranging from the golf course to the proposed new hospital.
“There’s a lot that was accomplished by the past council and by former mayor Button, but there’s so much more to do,” he said, noting the new council has now begun looking at the new budget for 2017 as one example.
Mayor Roy said there is still a lot of work to do to finalize the budget, but what they do not want to do is end like Estevan, which has a sizable deficit.
“We as a government have to look at managing our costs, such as the Tatagwa Parkway,” said the mayor.
Keith Stemler, the CEO of Dominion Energy Processing Group, the company proposing to build an oil refinery by Stoughton, paid a visit to Weyburn on Thursday to see Mayor Roy. Later the same day, a public information meeting was held in Stoughton about the refinery.
“He wanted us to know the refinery is not a pipe dream. They have their financing now,” said Mayor Roy, adding later they will have a meeting in February.
In a later interview, he noted they are talking with Southeast College about partnering up to provide training for people who want to work at the refinery.
“For Weyburn, they going to look to us as a support city. Hopefully there will be businesses move into the area that can support the refinery,” said Mayor Roy.
Looking at this upcoming year, Mayor Roy noted the city is looking at building the city’s new water reservoir, and said the water plant has some technology from 1959 still in use, so all of this will get replaced and updated.
“Through the federal grant and the provincial grant, we’re going to be starting to build on this so we can have clean water,” he said, noting the capacity of the reservoir will be able to provide water for 20,000 people for a seven-day period, if all of a sudden there is no other source of water, such as in an emergency.
The city’s main supply of water is Nickle Lake, and while it is currently low, Mayor Roy said hopefully the snow received by the city this winter will be able to bring it back up some.
“There’s a three-year water supply at its peak. That’s why we have to look at this facility, and that’s why we have to do water conservation and do this properly,” said the mayor. “We had one big snowfall, and city crews did very well with that.”
From reading he has done, Mayor Roy noted some people think that we as a society are due for another major revolution, although he said the changes may not be here until his grandchildren have grown up. “It’s all about adaptation to what new world we’re entering into,” he said.
More generally, he said Weyburn has a very good council. “We really feel we can offer you, the citizens, a really great city to live in,” he said.
The first question posed to the mayor was about the new hospital, and he noted that council will be meeting with the Weyburn Hospital Foundation to get an update on where the project is going.
The City is halfway through its 10-year commitment to collect funds for the hospital through the hospital levy.
“Other than that, the City has to get land for the new hospital. It’s up to us to push the government on that, and we’re waiting to see what the government will say about our new hospital,” said Mayor Roy.
As to a location for the new hospital, he understands there are three sites picked out, but the location has not yet been chosen. Some people have suggested using the land next to the current hospital, but he said with Health into the Lean principles, they feel it would be more efficient to have a hospital on one level, and in that case, the land by the hospital would not be enough.
Asked about taking ownership of the Golf Course, a topic which came up recently with the Golf Club going through the tax enforcement process with the RM of Weyburn, Mayor Roy said they will take a look at it, but first the RM and Golf Club have to sort out their issue about the taxes owed by the Golf Club.
“We’ll let them sort that out,” he said. “Council still has to make a decision on it.”
Club member Brenda King asked about the new speed zones of 30 km/h in the school zones. She said she agrees with having the speed limit, but not 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year. She said it should only be enforced when school is in session.
Mayor Roy said the city will revisit that in the spring, and pointed out that Police Chief Marlo Pritchard had wanted motorists to first get used to the need to slow down in school zones before the city relaxes the rules on when it’s to be enforced.
