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1228 Fourth Street, Estevan
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Issue 48
SERVING THE ENERGY CITY SINCE 1903
Wednesday, April 4, 2018
www.estevanmercury.ca
Mailing No. 10769 | Publication No. 40069240
Weather delays spring operations Normally City of Estevan public works crews would be getting started, or even well into, their spring operations, but the weather conditions the last few weeks have delayed those efforts. Norm Mack, the manager for the roads and drainage division in public works, said the street sweepers have been out just once in late March, and that was to remove dust and debris on Priority 1 streets from the white and yellow lanes. “That’s our first step is to get the sweepers out right after the snow melts, but the temperature has to be at freezing or above, because they carry on-board water, and the machines can’t freeze up,” said Mack. Estevan has experienced a cold snap in late March and early April, with temperatures well below normal. “Right now we’re hauling out snow from parking lots,” Mack said. Once temperatures are warm enough, street sweeping will be one of the first orders of business, to prepare the streets for asphalt patching. Crews have been patching holes with cold mix thus far, but it’s only a temporary solution, and it doesn’t take long for the patch to be dislodged. The plant for the hot mix, which is a more permanent solution for pothole patching, will fire up in mid-April. “There aren’t a whole lot of potholes, but any time you get moisture … more potholes show up,” said Mack. “Moisture like snow or melting snow, it more or less creates potholes.” The most troublesome areas for potholes include the intersection of Perkins Street and Souris Avenue South. Mack said even though it is the Ministry of Highways and Infrastructure’s jurisdiction, the city fills the potholes in that area because they are troublesome, and the city can’t afford to wait. King Street from Petterson Drive to Kensington Avenue, which is slated to be resurfaced this year, is also a problematic area right now, he said. Another portion of King Street, through the Pleasantdale valley, also suffers from pothole problems. Pothole patching will start on the main arteries and then move into residential areas later in the year. Crews will also look after crack filling once the temperature warms up. “We can’t do that with snow and below zero temperatures. We’ll have to just wait,” said Mack. Mack said it’s surprising that it has taken so long to get into spring operations. He recalled that Estevan received a lot of snow in the winter of 2016-17, but most of it was gone by the first day of spring last year, and spring operations started in late March. “This year we didn’t get much snow all winter long, and we thought we would be at it really quick in March, but the temperatures were so cold from January to March,” said Mack. With cold temperatures remaining in the forecast for the next few days, it means the annual spring work will be delayed a little while longer. But Mack stressed Estevan needs the moisture, after the drought experienced last summer.
The Wylie Mitchell Building was the site of the B&T Estevan Gun Show on March 24 and 25. Those who attended the show had plenty to say about the Liberals’ new gun control legislation.
New Liberals’ firearms bill draws plenty of local reaction By William Acri wacri@estevanmercury.ca
The Liberals new firearms bill, called Bill C-71, has been criticized for being a new long gun registry and also attacking legal firearms owners while not containing enough to address gun violence associated with gangs, illegal gun sales and the smuggling of firearms. Souris-Moose Mountain MP Robert Kitchen was in attendance at the
B&T Estevan Gun Show that occurred recently and commented on the issue. “They say they are creating these laws to deal with issues in Surrey, British Columbia, and the Greater Toronto Area and similar places, but all we see from this is basically the long-gun registry 2.0,” said Kitchen. Since the bill’s introduction, registered firearm sellers were the first to get access to a booklet from Public Safety Canada that took the legal jargon out of the bill and provided people with
a bullet point summary of the bill’s intentions. The most controversial part of the bill that has many gun owners upset is a section on the licence verification page. The first point on that page reads, “Anyone selling or giving a nonrestricted firearm, including private sellers, will be required to verify the validity of the firearms licence of the recipient with the Canadian Firearms Program (CFP).” A2 » NEW
Tickets are selling well for Alice Cooper The City of Estevan is pleased with the ticket sales thus far for the Alice Cooper concert happening later this year. In an interview with the Mercury last Thursday, city manager Jeff Ward said about 1,300 tickets have been sold already for the concert, which will take place on Aug. 26 at Affinity Place. About 2,000 tickets need to be sold to break even. Having this many tickets sold in the first two weeks that they were available helped ease the city’s concerns of whether the concert would make money. Ticket sales for the event started in mid-March, with a pre-sale that saw hundreds of tickets gobbled up. “We’d like to sell out, and make these types of shows very viable so we
can continue having them,” said Ward. Capacity for the concert would be about 3,500 spectators. Cooper’s appearance will be the first concert at Affinity Place since January 2017, when Blue Rodeo performed. Ticket sales for Cooper have already eclipsed what was seen for Blue Rodeo. Ward believes people are eager to see concerts return to Affinity Place. “You’ll see comments every once in a while about how it’s just back to a rink, it’s not an events centre like what it was advertised as,” said Ward. “I know we went through some changes with our staff over at leisure (services), as well as our promoter. I know the new promoter is very good at getting us options.” It also helps that Cooper hasn’t been through Saskatchewan for a while, and he’s still well-known in music
circles. He’ll put on a great show, Ward said, so even if people aren’t fond of him, they know they’ll be treated to a great theatrical concert experience. Additional advertising will take place prior to the concert. Ward hopes Estevan will be able to attract spectators from Weyburn, Regina and other markets, since the nearest stop to Estevan for Cooper on his Paranormal Evening Tour will be Saskatoon and Winnipeg. Ward said the city will usually experience a big rush of ticket sales in the final week before a concert, once people find out their plans and determine whether they will be able to attend the show. Limited tickets are now available at Henders Drugs and at the leisure services office, or on the Ticketmaster website.
2018 F-150
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