Yorkton Council is going to face some interesting decisions moving forward in terms of where and when to spend money on capital projects.
The City has spent considerable dollars and staff effort undertaking an asset assessment which is being undertaken by Associated Engineering.
The study has taken about eight months, and cost $300,000, and Council has been getting a series of reports on various aspects of the City's infrastructure over the past few months.
In terms of priority, initial reports to Council showed the City will need to deal with deficiencies in regards to Occupational Health and Safety violations. Associated Engineering found 129 such incidents which will require approximately $2 million to address.
In addition is it expected another $2 million will be needed to address areas in poor condition with a high consequence of failure.
Those deficiencies and shortcomings would chew through a couple of years of capital investment even if no other work were carried out, and there is little to suggest Council would want to claw back on what has been a more aggressive program to replace infrastructure such as sidewalks.
While simply finding a way to address concerns identified in the asset management study will be a challenge, there is always a political element to decisions. Anyone that doubts that voter influence plays a role in City Hall simply weren't paying attention when Councils over the years overturned a decision to locate its public library first in the now former Painted Hand Casino building on Third Avenue, and then again to make it part of the Gallagher Centre project, or choosing not to put the skateboard park downtown.
So the question is where do high profile projects which are not likely to make the priority list based on the current assessment going to end up.
A case in point came up at the May 16 regular meeting of Council when a request from Yorkton Minor Hockey to install ice in the Kinsmen Arena earlier than usual was heard.
The request once again brought up deficiencies at the arena regarding handling humidity when hot outside. The issue came up a couple of years ago when an out-of-town figure skating school sought summer ice at the arena. That request was turned down, as was the minor hockey one last week, although being local it did hold more weight to the point Council instructed City Administration to study how the problem might be best rectified.
However, during the discussion Mayor James Wilson reminded City facilities are currently part of an Asset Assessment process, and suggested they should wait to see where the Kinsmen Arena needs comes out in the overall scope of City-owned buildings.
Certainly hockey ice is going to be higher profile in the minds of many than most things likely to be on the assessment list, and that will means more calls to Councillors pushing for work at the arena.
It will be an interesting balancing act in spending for Council in the years ahead.
