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The City of Weyburn has had "a phenomenal month, and a phenomenal year so far", as the number of building permits was up and their value exceeded last year's totals by an astonishing 300 per cent, council was told Monday night.

The "phenomenal" numbers were outlined by Doug Mulhall, manager of Community Services and the city's head building inspector. In the month of July alone, the city issued 24 permits worth a total of $44.5 million, bringing the year-to-date totals to 121 buildings permits as of the end of July, worth $62.7 million.

This is triple the year-to-date numbers of a year ago (which was a record year for the city), when the city had issued a total of 117 permits worth $20.05 million.

The big numbers this month include some major projects, such as the Comp School project worth over $23 million; $12.5 million for a SaskPower service centre; $1 million for a new office for Apex Oil, both of these on Ebel Road; and $4.4 million for three residential projects, including a new four-storey 22-unit condo next to the Elgin Mall, beside a four-storey condo still under construction.

This gives the city 57 new dwelling units as of the end of July, of which 29 are single family homes, and 28 are multiple-family dwellings, worth a total of $12.7 million. A year ago, there were 51 dwelling units created worth $9.85 million.

Mulhall said while a couple of projects add large dollar values to the total, the construction is a reflection of the growth that is ongoing in the city; in addition, he believes that construction activity brings more construction as spinoff.

The City of Weyburn will be hosting a six-person delegation from Ukraine on Aug. 21-23, so council has elected to cancel their meeting on Aug. 22.

Mayor Debra Button said the Ukrainian delegation will arrive the evening of Sunday, Aug. 21, and will be hosted by council and administration for sessions all day on Monday, Aug. 22, including hosting them for supper in the evening, before they leave on Aug. 23.

Weyburn was named as a community that exhibits the "Best Practices" of Canadian municipalities, and four elected officials from Ukraine want to come to the city to learn what those practices are and how they can apply them at home.

The city hosted a delegation from Ukraine some months ago, but only one member of that delegation was an elected official, noted Mayor Button, adding the city is planning a full agenda of activities and sessions for their visit here.

The new record levels of construction in Weyburn, which includes a major construction and renovation project at the Comp, has prompted the city to appoint two building inspectors from a Regina firm to specifically work on that project.

The two building officials, Norm Kindred and Ty Tweidt, of Professional Building Inspections, were appointed to provide licensed building official services on City of Weyburn projects, and in particular to do a plan review and inspection of the Comp School projects.

"We have some larger than normal projects, the Comp in particular with a $23 million value. We know we're stretching our resources a little on the thin side, and that's not acceptable to council or to us," said Mulhall, explaining the rationale for hiring the two inspectors.

The cost to the city, according to the agreement signed by council, is to pay a fee of $3.50 per $1,000 of new construction cost.

Council was told the Nickle Lake Regional Park board has decided to turn the park access road back to gravel temporarily, due to the costs of fixing the road.

"There's a tremendous amount of deterioration on that road, so the decision was made that it would be safer to turn it back to gravel," said council representative Coun. Winston Bailey.

To fix up all the road failures on the access road, "there's still a large cost to it, but to do the paving was more than the board could or would take on," he added.

The city's Parks department received a boost, as Enerplus representative Jason Veness provided a $5,000 donation to the Tatagwa Parkway fund.

He informed council they've moved in to the building that formerly housed the Bonanza Restaurant on Sims Avenue, moving their field office here from Estevan.

Enerplus has planned to hold a grand opening in Weyburn on Sept. 15.

"We recognize that the community has a commitment to sustainability, which is near and dear to our heart," said Veness before providing the donation.

Mayor Button accepted the donation, and noted that at the height of the flooding crisis in June, Enerplus was one of the first companies to provide assistance with a donation of over $2,000 to help with the city's expenses in dealing with the flooding.