麻豆传媒

Land owners in the Rural Municipality of Weyburn should soon have a visit from the RM's pest control officer, Rick Wanner, as he will be making a full sweep of the municipality looking for any sign of rats.The provincial association of RMs, SARM, earlier this year announced a province-wide effort to make Saskatchewan rat-free like their neighbours, Alberta, have been for decades.In the RM of Weyburn, Wanner makes a full sweep of the entire RM area every two years, and this is the year he will be coming around to look for signs of rat infestation, said Reeve Carmen Sterling.With the recent rainfall and snow-melt, he was waiting for the grid roads to dry up before he gets out, and the reeve estimated he would be out within the week. If Wanner finds any signs of infestation at a given site, he will bait traps, or else will show the land-owner how to do it.Meantime, the RM council had presentations with requests for support from two community groups, which will both be taken to budget deliberations, with the budget to largely be finalized at a meeting tonight, Apr. 21, and then ratified at the May council meeting.Art Wallace of the Soo Line Historical Society appeared on behalf of the Soo Line Historical Museum, asking for financial support to help them keep their doors open.This request will be sent to our budget meeting. The museum is an important aspect of the community, said Reeve Sterling.

The second group was a delegation from the Weyburn and District Hospital Foundation, including president Kim Thorson, vice-president Bill Holliday and member Dan Cugnet.

The foundation members gave the RM council a general idea about what is being planned for a new acute-care hospital for Weyburn and area. As part of the preparation for this project, the hospital foundation has begun the task of fundraising, as the community has to come up with 35 per cent of the overall cost of a new hospital, while the province will pay 65 per cent of the cost.

No blueprints or design have been done up on the hospital as yet, so there is no estimate of the project cost available; however, based on a recently-built hospital in a similar-sized community, if a hospital here were to cost around $80 million, the local community would then be responsible for $28 million.Recently, the RM of Brokenshell indicated a long-term commitment to the hospital foundation of $20,000 over a 15-year period, or a total of $300,000. The RM of Weyburn will consider what their commitment will be at tonight's budget meeting.The RM committed to paying for two free swimming days at the Weyburn Leisure Centre, on July 2 and Aug. 3, and to provide a $200 donation to the Agriculture in the Classroom project which was recently promoted at the SARM convention.

Brian Bakken spoke to the RM about the year's plans at the Weyburn Golf Course; the update was provided as a condition of the tax exemption granted by the RM, based on the economic benefits the golf course provides to the RM and area.Reeve Sterling said there are some major capital improvements planned for this year at the golf course. The RM was also told about the amount of money raised each year for charitable causes through golf tournaments held at the course, such as the Travelodge Golf Tournament for the Hospital Foundation, and the annual Oilmen's Tournament.