News and notes from the Jan. 9 regular meeting of Estevan city council.
With Mayor Gary St. Onge away on vacaction, Councillor Lynn Chipley, took over his chair and ran the meeting. Chipley is the current deputy mayor but will pass that title on to Councillor Dennis Moore in February.
As the meeting was the first of 2012, a handful of housekeeping items were on the agenda.
Among them were the council appointments for various committees and boards for the upcoming year. There were no major changes announced at the meeting.
The civilian members of the Board of Police Commissioners and CPR Advisory Committee were also selected at the meeting.
Current members Kevin Smith and Shirley Thera were the only two people to submit their name for the police board and were both re-elected by acclamation. Mayor Gary St. Onge and Councillors Lynn Chipley and Chris Istace are also members of the five-person board.
Thera, Rory Flemming and Marian Wilson each submitted their names for the CPR Advisory Committee and were also selected by acclamation. Councillors Dennis Moore and Brian Johnson represent city council on the committee.
The City's request for a cost-matching grant under the Revenue Construction Incentive program has been approved.
The RCI program is designed to spur the construction of rental housing in Saskatchewan communities and provides companies with up to $5,000 in incentives per rental unit. The program does not apply to renovations or the addition of a rental suite in an existing home.
The province will provide a maximum of $360,000 per year under the program for an overall total of $1.8 million when it wraps up in 2015.
Through its CANDO program, which also provides tax breaks and incentives, the City will match the $5,000, giving contractors a $10,000 per door break.
The members of council received correspondence from the Saskatchewan Â鶹´«Ã½AV East Enterprise Region regarding the possible creation of an international trade/transportation corridor in the area.
In the information provided to council, it was noted a corridor would support international trade by creating "more efficient, reliable, safe and seamless trade related transportation systems to serve global supply chains." It would also connect cities and regional trading centres, promote trade and initiate economic growth.
A forum on the topic was scheduled for Monday night in Weyburn. It was expected representatives from the southeast business community, provincial government and area municipal governments would be on hand for the forum.
City Engineer Kilfom Weldeab provided council with an update on the Souris Avenue watermain replacement program as well as the Kensington Avenue and Rooney Road/Nesbitt Drive intersection improvement project.
Weldeab noted that Glen Peterson Construction completed underground work and partial road work in November and will complete all remaining road work and concrete work in the spring. Peterson Construction will also provide gravel road maintenance service until the project is completed. Once the concrete work is completed it's expected that Souris Valley Paving will pave Souris from King Street to Seventh Street.
As for the Kensington Avenue project, the undergound work, road work and partial concrete work was completed by Souris Valley Paving in November. The remaining concrete work and ditch grading will be finished in the spring.
Souris Valley also completed construction of a new approach for Power Dodge which was made necessary when one of the business's approaches was lost to the creation of a turning lane off Kensington onto Nesbitt Drive.
The much awaited traffic lights are still being worked on. Can Traffic Ltd. has done the electrical work and the installation of the lights is expected in the near future.
Council wasted little time in finding a new city clerk.
Judy Pilloud, who had previously served as the executive assistant to the mayor and city manager Jim Puffalt, has been named the successor to Lyndon Stachoski who resigned in December.
Pilloud had been the acting clerk since Stachoski took medical leave in October and was named the full-time clerk following the open portion of the Jan. 9 meeting.
