A regular meeting of the Weyburn City Council was held on January 24; here are the major points of interest:
*Councillor Nancy Styles discussed the Communities in Bloom committee's desire to continue with the program, despite not winning the national competition once again. The city did retain its five-bloom rating, however, and received a special mention for their Bloomin' Schools program.
Styles said that the committee wants to continue its free public classes on composting, but will try to find a new location for the classes, such as a store that sells garden supplies. She also said the committee wants to continue with its successful community gardens program, located on South Hill.
"This really worked great last year," said Styles. "We will probably be expanding it this year."
*Council also heard from Styles regarding donations made to the Tatagwa Parkway fund in 2010 and explained the Parks Board's plans for 2011.
The fund received $5,300 in corporate donations and $7,100 in residential donations, for a total of $12,400 for the Tatagwa Parkway project.
As for this year, the Parks Board wants to expand the Tatagwa trail along the river between Third Street and the museum.
Councillor Dick Michel asked if the Board plans to create a path along 16th Street in the near future.
Styles said that the Board is simply trying to "connect the dots" in the trail system currently and because of limited funding they have to focus on one area at a time.
Councillor Andrew Broccolo expanded on this answer, "Because of the potential for current and future development in (the Riverfront Boardwalk) area, that would be the current focus for the Tatagwa Parkway Master Plan."
*Manager of Community Services Doug Mulhall presented the 2010 Building Department annual report during the meeting.
Mulhall said that 2010 was a record year for construction in Weyburn, with a construction value of $41. 4 million, beating the city's last record year in 2008 by about $400,000.
There were 44 single family dwelling units created in 2010, up from 2009 by 19 and down from 2008 when 79 units were created.
The creation of multi-family dwellings was also up, seeing 65 created in 2010 and 24 and 20 created in 2009 and 2008, respectively.
There were 75 lots sold in 2010, compared to 21 in 2009, 82 in 2008, 81 in 2007 and 45 in 2006.
"If you look back over the last five years that gives us a total of over 300 lots that have been sold for development in the City of Weyburn," said Mulhall. "That's quite impressive and certainly indicates how much work is going on by all the developers and everyone supplying materials. It's been a hopping place."
At the end of 2010, the City had 12 lots for sale but Mulhall indicated that approximately eight more have been sold this month.
"We do have a plan to build another 77 lots this spring," said Mulhall.
