Can you believe it’s fall already? Are you like me — do the summers seem to race by faster every year?
Although our city workers had vacations to juggle like everyone else, we still managed to get a lot done this past summer. You may remember our Mayor’s Clean-Up Crew, a pair of summer students we hired to go out and do some painting and sprucing up of sign posts, fire hydrants and basically anything that was looking a bit dingy.
What did you think? Did you notice a difference? Is this an initiative we should keep going in future years?
Speaking of sprucing up, our city was visited by the judges for Communities in Bloom. We didn’t enter the competition but the judges came to assess how the city has been doing since the flood.
The judges will give us a final report that will tell us the areas in which they are happy with our progress and the areas where we still need to pull up our socks.
Now, I hope you noticed the fresh paint and I hope you noticed the flowers but one thing I know for sure everyone noticed was the closure of the Government Road bridge. After many weeks of diligent work by our City Engineering Department, the bridge is finally open again. I know this was an inconvenience for everyone but it was an important safety consideration so the Engineering Department wanted to make sure they got the job done right.
I want to thank our City Engineer and his team for their thoroughness in looking after the safety of all of Weyburn’s citizens and visitors.
Another thing I’m sure most of you noticed was some stories in the Leader-Post about the downturn in the oil industry. I know that current state of the industry is causing a lot of anxiety for some of our newer residents. For sure, this is not a fun time for a community in the middle of the oil patch. But those residents who have been here awhile know that this is just part of the cycle. We’ve been through times like this before but over the long term our community has been on a growth trend. Even now, we are looking forward to adding some new businesses to Main Street.
In the meantime, we have a lot of leisure activities to look forward to as our fall programming gets geared up. I’d like to give a special shout out to the Weyburn Beavers for their terrific season, capturing the Saskatchewan division of the Western Major Baseball League for the first time in team history. Of course, with baseball winding up, we can now look forward to Red Wings season and hope that they do just as well.
On a final note, I’d just like to remind everyone about Farmer Appreciation Night coming up in early November. This is one of the biggest events of the year so make sure you stay alert when tickets go on sale.
I’ll have some more fall observations for you next month. In the meantime, if you have any questions or any topics you’d like addressed in this column, please let me know at [email protected].
