She applied to be part of the EPS, and then went through the provincial police college. Acting EPS Chief Warren Morrical said Ruthven likely had the strangest police college experience out of anyone he knows, thanks to the modified duration. “They truncated it a month prior to the normal schedule,” said Morrical. “They had a whole bunch of stuff they had to get done in a short period of time.” Students in the college had to approach it like a bubble, with classmates, several instructors and others coming together in a small unit. With less time at police college, there’s a greater onus on field training for Ruthven. Const. Michelle Beaulieu will be responsible for the field training.
Bittman told the Mercury she will appear at council’s next meeting on May 31. She has already talked to Mayor Roy Ludwig, who invited her to attend the meeting. “I’ll have that opportunity to address them in person, so it is not dead in the water,” said Bittman. The benches do not say pro-life on them, but they do have a baby’s feet surrounded by a heart, and the slogan “Always Loved.” “I was actually shocked and dismayed, because I thought that this was a done thing,” said Bittman, who noted the city had initially given the benches their blessing.
The federal government will supply $1,517,600, the province will provide $1,264,540, and the city will be responsible for $1,011,860. Estevan will direct its money towards a pedestrian corridor expansion project that will create approximately 13 kilometres of new pedestrian walkways interconnected with existing ones. It will also install one washroom facility, a footbridge, 15 benches, solar-powered path lighting, and safety and accessibility improvements for street and railway crossings. Rod March, the city’s manager of parks and facilities, said he has been an advocate for the pathway system since arriving seven years ago, and all council members, both past and present, have been in full support. But funds were limited, and grants he sought were not approved.
The park would go in the empty area between the pool and the rink. “All we’re looking at doing is building a six-foot fence … we don’t have it all staked out or anything like that, but it would roughly require 350 feet of fence to be built. It would be built to any regulations that are present, and whatever the city would propose would be best,” said Porter. A former member of the Weyburn Kinsmen Club, Porter noted the Kin members in Weyburn are running the dog park in that community. Designs for the park indicate there would be a small holding pen with a small gate with access from the inside of the main park, and another small gate with access to the dog park. This area would be used to get dogs accustomed to their surroundings.