Residents and businesses in the Weyburn region which use city treated water will need to be patient a little longer, said City manager Bob Smith, as it may take until Thursday or Friday before the precautionary water advisory is lifted.
Residents and businesses in the Weyburn region which use city treated water will need to be patient a little longer, said City manager Bob Smith, as it may take until Thursday or Friday before the precautionary water advisory is lifted.
Apologizing for the inconvenience, Smith said the newly-refurbished water plant is up and on-line, but the city wants to be on the safe side and do more testing of the water before Environment will lift the advisory, which was first issued late last Thursday afternoon.
The precautionary advisory was first placed as Plant 200 was being refurbished and caused the turbidity levels to be higher than allowable standards set by the Ministry of the Environment. Turbidity refers to the suspended particles in water that causes it to have a cloudy appearance.
Speaking to council on Monday evening, Smith said the plant is looking good and the tests are coming through clean, but they want to do more tests to be sure, and with results taking a couple days to come back, it may be Thursday or Friday before the city can have the advisory lifted.
For a full explanation of the water advisory issue, please see the story on Page 5A of today's Review.
City council granted a request by Jerry Mainil Ltd. to be able to lease part of the city land in behind their property to help them to continue to expand.
Company president Dennis Mainil appeared at the council meeting on Monday to put their case forward, noting that Jerry Mainil's has bought the lot that formerly had Young's Equipment farm implements, and as they were the previous leasers of the land behind their property, Mainil's would like to lease it for their business.
The Parks Board met earlier on Monday, and after discussion decided to allow Mainil's to lease the land for a minimum five-year period, said Coun. Nancy Styles on behalf of the board.
When Mainil's initially made the request to lease the land, they were told the city wanted to take back about 100 feet of the 166-foot property as green space, which Mainil objected to.
In his letter to council, Mainil said this area would be an eye-sore and a mosquito trap, in addition to the expenses incurred by the city to rework the land and to move the fence line back.
The Parks Board said Jerry Mainil Ltd. can lease this land for a five-year period, with the terms to be negotiated with the city. The terms were to include planting of some trees and bushes along the border of the Tatagwa Parkway, which Mainil told council would be all right.
At Coun. Bill Rudachyk's suggestion, via Skype, the motion will include any other businesses adjacent to the area which might also want to lease some of the land in question.
The Building Department's annual report for 2011 gave a full breakdown of the city's second consecutive record-breaking year for construction.
In giving council the report, city manager Smith said the number of multi-family dwellings created was a disappointment (28 units were created) but said indications are that number will greatly improve this coming year.
"We're working with contractors to get more multi-family units built this year," said Smith, adding this would help address the need for more rental properties to be available.
In 2011, the city issued 170 building permits worth $70,424,245, almost double the record value set in 2010 when 179 permits were issued worth $41,447,239.
Broken down by category, 2011's totals included 120 residential permits worth $15,960,450; eight mobile homes worth $1,510,000; 27 commercial permits worth $9,895,295; 11 industrial permits worth $18,660,000; and three institutional
permits (including the Weyburn Comp construction currently underway) worth a total of $24,398,500.
In terms of city lots, the city ended 2011 with 29 lots available.
"Land developers are interested in developing new lots. This way if people feel our lots are too expensive, they can buy a lot from the private sector," said Smith, adding that this is how it works in other jurisdictions.
He also noted that the city's costs have greatly increased, which led to the large increase in the cost of new residential lots, which are sold on a cost-recovery basis by the city.
A question was forwarded by the Review to city council from reader Don Bahnuick, who asked why handicapped parking spaces are not being enforced.
In his query, he said, "When I asked people to move, I was told they can park where they want to. I pay $10 to park in this zone, why are they not enforced?"
Mayor Debra Button said the police commission went to some of the businesses which have handicapped parking stalls in their lots to ask if they want them enforced by police; some did agree to enforcement, others did not.
Any handicapped parking lots on city streets are enforceable by police and are policed, she said, but those on private parking lots are not enforceable unless the owner has asked the police to enforce them.
Mayor Button asked the reader to contact her about what location or locations he has had trouble with parking on, and if the stalls are on city-owned property, the police will be asked to "be more diligent" and pay attention to those stalls.
