WEYBURN – The addition of the name of Sam Murray to the names master list for civic properties was approved by city council on Monday evening.
The request for the name came from former Weyburn resident Ken Murray, in honour of his father, who was a former alderman and played an important role in a number of industries and businesses in Weyburn.
Sam Murray served on council from 1967 to 1970, and first ran for council in 1961 in a vote that ended in a tie, and he lost by a draw out of a hat.
He played an important role in the start of the distillery, Western Wire and Cable (later Alcatel, then Nexans), and the Weyburn Flying Club.
He also served on the committee that organized the very first Saskatchewan Oil Show in Weyburn, and he was very involved in the community.
The Street Naming advisory committee met on Nov. 25 to consider the request, and unanimously approved a motion to recommend to council that Sam Murray’s name be added to the master list for names for streets under the category of “outstanding contributions”.
• In other council business, the building department report for November reported the city had issued five building permits with a total construction value of $358,000.
Two of them are for house additions, one is for a tenant space for a café, one is an attached accessory building and one is for a new tenant space.
Year-to-date, the city as issued 61 building permits with a total construction value of $6,489,900, compared to a year ago when there had been 47 permits issued with a total value of $8,588,000.
In the Weyburn Builds program, 23 building permits have been issued so far in 2021, compared to four a year ago.
• The City’s annual budget will be slightly delayed, with plans to approve the 2022 budget at the Jan. 10 council meeting. The city’s budget policy sets the date of Dec. 20 each year for the next year’s budget, but administration requested a little extra time to finalize the 2022 budget.
