Editorial Yorkton This Week When Yorkton Council recently decided to keep the annual levy that had been implemented to pay off the Gallagher Centre expansion from years ago, simply repurposing it to be money used for recreation projects in the city, it was a wise one – albeit perhaps accomplished without much public discussion by Council for residents to view. Certainly an issue for Councils for years has been how to create reserve accounts for projects that everyone knows are coming just around the bend. article continues below The list of things needing attention, especially given many sidewalks and much street paving, underground water and sewer lines being a half century or older, is a long one in Yorkton, and frankly most urban communities across Saskatchewan and Canada.
As a result of the restriction the City has received complaints from local farmers who cannot drive their heavy machinery from one field to another since this bridge has a reduced capacity, she added. The cost of retrofitting this bridge is significant with a price tag well over the $1,000,000 range and this road is a low priority for the City. In essence, there are no plans to upgrade the road or the bridge and the neighbouring RM and farmers have been advised of this, noted Kaal. In response the RM is looking to upgrade another road as an option for farmers.
It was recommended by the Economic Development Committee and was endorsed by YBID with a monetary contribution. The project was set to commence this spring with a budget of $900,000, with $350,000 from the MEEP grant, $150,000 from YBID and $400,000 from the City’s 2021 budget. The project will feature gabion walls with City of Yorkton signage and lighting on the South West and South East corners to welcome inbound traffic. The project will also include pathways, concrete planters, native grass planting, berms and landscaping. “During the winter months we have been looking at the designs for this project in conjunction with Parks, Engineering and the consultants at Scatliff Miller Murray (SMM). As we dove deeper into detailed design, we realized that in-order for us to build close to the conceptual drawings that were presented to Council in June 2020, we needed to either refocus our funds on two sides of the intersection or come back to Council for further direction,” no
The requested decision was regarding the future of the Kinsmen Arena, keeping in mind the work done to date on the concept plans for a new ice surface at the Gallagher Centre. The goal is to ensure that two ice surfaces are available for Yorkton, and therefore it was recommended that an assessment of three components of the Kinsmen Arena be done to assist Council in determining whether to extend the life of the Kinsmen, or focus the investment on a second ice surface at the Gallagher Centre, detailed material read by Jessica Matsalla – Director of Legislation & Procedures (City Clerk), with the City.
Jessica Matsalla – Director ofLegislation & Procedures (City Clerk), with the City noted in summary; The direction is to move forward to 100 percent design on design Concept Plan #2 (Reduced Food Services) which is the smaller capacity of the options provided. The preferred site is located just south of the current clubhouse location. No underground cart storage – other storage options will be determined. For clubhouse scope and location, aodbt will act on behalf of the City to obtain pre-design consultants for survey, geo-tech, haz mat/demo plan and other pre-design work required (except civil at this point). The project budget is $185,000 (as directedby Council in October 2020) and includes $40,000 for these pre-design requirements.