Weyburn City Council during last night's meeting made official appointments of two City employees to their roles. The new City Clerk is Tina Clay, who has worked for the City of Weyburn for 16 years, most recently as Program Manager in the Leisure Services Department. She officially started her new position at City Hall on Monday, May 13th. Shara-lee Malcolm is the City of Weyburn's new Planning and Development Coordinator, and she is new to Weyburn, having started her role with the City on April 2nd.

"It's really exciting to add to city staff," commented City Councillor Laura Morrissette. "I think Weyburn is a great place to work and raise your family, and I know Shara-Lee is brand new to our community, so anybody that meets her, please make her feel welcome. She's just doing a fantastic job so far."

"Tina has lived in our community for as long as I've been here, so it's really great to see her work her way up at City Hall," she continued. "I've worked with her before and I can't wait to see what she's got in the City Clerk's handbag."

Morrissette said Clay's predecessor Donette Richter left big shoes to fill, but added, "I have absolutely no doubt that Tina can fill them and just take things that much farther."

Two other appointments were made official, with Evelyn Rowe and Stella Summers being added to the Weyburn Public Library Board for the remainder of 2024.

"Every year you'll see in January that the lists are submitted, but periodically we do have new volunteers that want to step on halfway through the year and we really appreciate that. Volunteerism is such a great thing in our community and time is probably one of the most precious things that you can give and we really appreciate it."

She noted that for those who want to step up and sit on a committee, there is an application process through the City's website. Find it HERE.

"Most of our committees have terms and conditions as to how many people they should have, the number of council members versus the number of at large, just so that we get a really great variety of opinions and thoughts. Most of our communities are actually open right now, so if anybody has an interest in Leisure Services, the Library, the Ag Society, the Care-A-Van Society, there's a whole list on the city website, and if there's one that sparks your interest, please fill out the form," she advised. "Contact that committee, their chairs are all listed as well, and you can even sit in at a meeting, find out what it's all about, with how big the commitment might be. And then we'd love to see more people join our committees in the city." 

Otherwise, last night's City Council meeting was mainly business as usual, with approvals made for reports from the various departments, a letter of commitment to the City of Estevan for the Targeted Sector Support application, and for the 2024 mill rates and base tax bylaw. 

Also approved was a discretionary use permit for a development, and five RFPs. 

The discretionary use permit pertains to Prairie Animal Health Centre's development of a new veterinary clinic adjacent to its current building.

The first RFP was for the 2024 Storm Main Replacement, which was awarded to Folspire Inc. of Vaughn, Ontario, whose bid was more than $100,000 under budget. The company will rent their equipment locally (in Saskatchewan) to do the work to replace approximately 368 meters of 900 mm concrete storm sewer pipe and associated infrastructure on 16th Street between Coteau Avenue and East Avenue.

The other RFPs were for the 2024 Water and Wastewater Infrastructure work, which was divided into four parts, Fire Hydrant Replacement - eight (8) locations, at a budget of $35,000; Street Valve Replacement - ten (10) locations, at a budget of $55,000; Manhole Refurbishment - thirteen (13) locations, at a budget of $55,000; and Catch Basin Repair and Replacement – nine (9) locations, at a budget of $75,000. Margetts Construction was awarded the contracts for the fire hydrant replacement as well as the street valve replacement; Folspire Inc. was awarded the contracts for the Manhole refurbishment and the catch basin repair and replacement.

As for the Targeted Sector Support letter, the City of Estevan is applying for the Targeted Sector Support (TSS) funding for the Our Energy Future: Collaboration and Capacity Building for Municipal Leaders Program and is seeking a letter of commitment from community partners. The City of Estevan is currently working with Southeast College on a TSS application focused on partnership, collaboration, and capacity building for all involved communities – specifically for energy transition in the Southeast region. The other partners are the Town of Carnduff and the Town of Coronach. This will include a total financial investment for each community of $3,750 to train Council, municipal staff, and council community stakeholders of the technologies involved in the energy transition, as well as networking and community capacity building for the future.

Mayor Marcel Roy said he is looking forward to the Saskatchewan Oil & Gas Show coming to Weyburn in early June, and City Engineering Director Jennifer Wilkinson also announced that the Household Hazardous Waste Disposal Day will be happening a little earlier this year, on May 25th.

For more details, you can read the full council agenda HERE.