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OCTOBER 5, 6 & 7
POWERDODGE
Wednesday, October 4, 2017
Issue 22
SERVING THE ENERGY CITY SINCE 1903
www.estevanmercury.ca
Mailing No. 10769 | Publication No. 40069240
Annexation was the focus of city open house By David Willberg dwillberg@estevanmercury.ca
City of Estevan representatives faced questions regarding the plan to annex land from the Rural Municipality of Estevan during an open house on Thursday night at the Estevan Leisure Centre’s multipurpose room. City council members and management team members were on hand to speak to ratepayers from the RM. Placards were set up inside the multipurpose room with a map of the proposed annexed area and reasons for the annexation. Adam Nordquist, a development planner for the city, and Mayor Roy Ludwig offered some background on the issue and the city’s reasoning for the annexation. Nordquist said the city approached the RM in 2014 about annexing about 10 quarter sections of land in response to the new truck bypass north of the city and some of the growth trends that were occurring at the time. The city wants to have more room for residential lots. The city has since
amended its request to sixand-a-half quarter sections of land. Four to the north would be secured for future residential uses. “When we say for future residential uses, we mean we want to have a say in how those lands will be developed,” said Nordquist. “We won’t own them or anything like that, but in cases where an industrial or commercial developer comes along, we want to have a say so that it doesn’t affect how the … city of Estevan will grow in the future.” The city’s residential growth has been pushing northward in recent years, and doesn’t have much room remaining. There are limitations to the south and the west, and the east has been reserved for industrial development. There is also two-anda-half quarters to the east to expand commercial and industrial reserves will expand in the future, he said. Nordquist estimates the city has a 15-year supply of land if it grows at its current rate, which it estimated at 2.6 per cent. But many of the RM ratepayers weren’t onside
with the city’s desire to annex land. Some questioned the city’s growth rate projections, citing the federal census data. Nordquist admitted Estevan has been prone to boom and bust cycles. “We have had years of extreme growth as well as declines,” said Nordquist. “But for the most part, we tend to grow a bit more than we fall.” He added the city has often used the eHealth Saskatchewan health card tally for its population. The most recent tally, released early this year, showed there were 13,307 people in the city as of June 30, 2016, a figure that doesn’t include transient workers. There were also questions of whether the city should wait until a decision is made on the future of Units 4 and 5 at the Boundary Dam Power Station. The provincial government has yet to decide whether the two units will be retrofitted with carbon capture and storage technology, or if they will be shut down. Others wanted to why the city needs to develop land when it has two quarters north of the Estevan
Adam Nordquist explains the reasons for the city’s proposed annexation of land from the rural municipality of Estevan during an open house on Thursday night. Comprehensive School earmarked for residential purposes. There is also the parcel of land in northwest Estevan being handled by Essex Developments. Ludwig said the city
has not received any offers on the land near the Comp. And there were those who wanted to know if the land the city wants to annex from the RM has already been developed. Nordquist
said it is largely agricultural land with some acreages. There are a couple instances of commercial shops, but there isn’t anything that would hinder future A2 » RM
Cornerstone enrolments are up this year By David Willberg dwillberg@estevanmercury.ca
The official enrolment numbers are in for the South East Cornerstone Public School Division. Registration figures are tabulated for school divisions across the province on Sept. 30 each year. Since Sept. 30 was on a weekend in 2017, the school divisions went with the figures as of Sept. 28. Those numbers show there were 8,277 students in South East Cornerstone, which was up from 8,226 on Sept. 30, 2016, for a year-over-year increase of 51 students. “We continue to see variations throughout the system,” said director of education Lynn Little. “Our Estevan numbers, for the
most part, are down a little bit, but we have some other communities that are up that balance it off.” The division projected there would be 8,292 students this year. Those projections were set in February. There were 8,219 students in the division on June 30. “ We f l u c t u a t e , o f course, over the course of the school year,” said Little. Estevan Comprehensive School (ECS) is sitting at 722 students, which is down from the 742 students at the school at this time a year ago. The division expected there would be 740 students at ECS for the 2016-17 school year. Little admits the division was a little surprised with the enrolment decrease.
Lynn Little South East Cornerstone hasn’t had the opportunity to go through the numbers, and determine which grades contributed to the decline. The four kindergarten to Grade 8 (K-8) schools in the city saw declines to varying degrees. Hillcrest School is at 114 students, which is down from 127 a year earlier. Pleasantdale School has 202 students, which is down from 214.
Spruce Ridge School boasts 424 students, which is a decrease from 430 students, and Westview School had 193 kids, which is a decline of three from last year’s 196. “We’ve been expecting to see a decrease year-overyear for the last couple of years,” said Little. “It’s maybe a little bit more than we anticipated this year.” As for those schools in the surrounding communities, Bienfait Weldon School, which is a K-8 school, has an enrolment of 135 students, up from 127 last year. Lampman School, which is a kindergarten to Grade 12 (K-12) school, has 207 students, down from 212. Macoun School, which is a K-8 school, has 53 kids, which was the same as a year earlier. Midale Central School,
which is also a K-12 school, has 154 students, which is down from last year’s 168. Little noted that Hillcrest and Lampman were 12 students lower than projected, Midale was down 19 students and Pleasantdale was about 15 lower than expected. Bienfait Weldon was up about eight students from expectations. Projections are based on local knowledge of the areas, she said. “Usually they’re fairly accurate,” said Little. “Overall as a system we were accurate, but specifically in the Estevan area, our projections are higher than our enrolments are.” Little noted that both schools in Carlyle – the Carlyle Elementary School and the Gordon F. Kells High
School – saw an increase this year. Also up was the Oxbow Prairie Horizons School, and the two schools in Moosomin, MacLeod Elementary School and McNaughton High School. Some schools in Weyburn are up as well. The Weyburn Comprehensive School increased by 24 students from the end of September last year to 918. It is the largest school in the division, but that’s due to its status as a Grades 7 to 12 school, while ECS is for those in Grades 9 to 12. Both ECS and WCS have students from South East Cornerstone and the Holy Family Roman Catholic Separate School divisions. Enrolment numbers for Holy Family were not immediately available.
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