The members of council approved a request from the Estevan Firefighters Association to provide $1,800 to cover the cost of their annual Christmas social.
It was also noted that, unlike in past years, the members of council and other local emergency service members, would not be invited to this year's social. The reason for the exclusion was due to the fact the Estevan Fire Rescue Service has a number of new members and the association wants to use the evening as a bonding experience for its members and their significant others.
Council received a letter from the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association informing them that seven City employees will be recognized with Meritorious Service Awards in 2012.
William Baker, Sharon Carlson, Helen Fornwald, Yemane Ghebresius, Gloria Johnson, Ron Tocker and Greg Wock will be presented with their awards at SUMA's president's banquet and municipal awards ceremony Jan. 12 in Regina.
Recycling continues to be somewhat of a headache for the City and Regens Disposal.
In a letter to council, Regens president Gene Baniulus said in recent months the community has increased its recycling efforts and that the volume of plastics and tin cans has grown to the point where they have had to place a larger bin at their site on Sixth Street.
Despite that success, there continues to be issues with people using the recycling bins to dispose of items such as appliances, wood and packaging material such as Styrofoam.
Baniulus said although his processors go through the materials by hand, there are cases where the contamination presents a safety risk and can ruin a load of otherwise recyclable material and they are forced to send the contents to the City landfill.
Baniulus is asking the City to encourage the public's co-operation with regards to recycling by advertising in local media outlets that only approved items should be placed in the bins.
The letter led to a discussion by the members of council who would like to see some changes at the depot. Councillor Chris Istace noted the current signage at the facility is insufficient and he would like to see signs placed on the actual recycling bins. He also made a motion to have the City send a letter to local electronics retailers asking them to ask their customers to not dump packaging materials such as Styrofoam in the bins. Both motions were passed.
Councillor Dennis More said he would also like to see the City place cameras at the depot site, noting the Estevan Human Society, of which he is a member, has had success deterring vandals and other troublemakers, since they placed cameras at their facility. The City agreed to look into the cost of the cameras and where they might be located.
In his regular report, City manager Jim Puffalt said they are very excited that Estevan is part of the upcoming Hedley tour.
The popular band will be in the city Feb. 18 at Spectra Place as part of a nationwide tour that includes stops in Toronto's Air Canada Centre and other large venues.
Puffalt also apologized for any issues that seat holders in Spectra Place may have had in getting their tickets, noting that the small timeframe they had to work with created issues for City staff.
Although there have been reports tickets for Hedley are sold out, Puffalt said there are still some tickets left and that more will be made available as the promoter and other groups release tickets that have been set aside for special sales or promotions.
The Estevan Fire and Rescue Service report for September and October was presented at the meeting.
False alarms continue to be a nuisance for the service as they were called out to five in September and six more in October.
There were no major fires in either month but the fire fighters were called upon to handle a couple of significant hazardous materials matters.
On Sept. 27, they were dispatched to a large diesel spill in the parking lot of the Co-op grocery store on Fourth Street. The fuel tank of a semi unit was ripped open when the driver accidentally drove over a concrete curb, leading to the spill of what was described as a significant amount of fuel.
The firefighters arrived to find employees attempting to prevent the diesel fuel from reaching a nearby catch basin. After evacuating the area and shutting down the pumps, the service was able to deal with the spill and were able to prevent any fuel from reaching the storm sewer.
The other incident took place at the Civic Auditorium and Estevan Curling Club where an ammonia leak required their attention. Firefighters and City staff entered the mechanical room between the two buildings and shut off the leaking system and ventilated the area.
However, later in the day they were called back as the leak had gotten worse. After discovering a vapour cloud over the ice surface, the firefighters used positive pressure fans to introduce fresh air into the building and clear the ammonia out.
One day later, the service received a call in the early morning hours that a bin at the Days Inn containing used cooking oil was tipped over by vandals which led to hazardous conditions in the parking lot. The firefighters used absorbent material to clean up the grease.
The building permit report for October was also released at the meeting. The City issued nine permits with a value of $5.40 million in October. The bulk of the permits were for commercial purposes as four permits, which had a value of $4.85 million, were handed out.
Estevan is slightly behind the pace of 2011 as there has been $39 million in permits issued thus far compared to $44 million at the same time last year.
