review
weyburn Vol.114 No. 33 - Weyburn, Saskatchewan Wednesday, August 14, 2024 - 10 Pages
Trick or Treat
MVP
Nickle Lake Regional Park held their annual Halloween in the Park on Saturday.
Jorde Chartrand came home from Nationals with a gold medal and tournament MVP.
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Work on First Avenue progressing, plans made for 2025 projects By Greg Nikkel, SaskToday.ca Road construction on the City of Weyburn’s biggest project this year, First Avenue, is progressing better than planned, and city council approved plans to prepare for paving of King Street in 2025. Council heard an update about First Avenue from city engineer Jennifer Wilkinson on Monday evening, who noted the upgraded road work was able to be extended up to 11th Street from Government Road, and weather permitting, paving may be completed on much of it by the end of next week. “First Avenue has gone exceptionally well. We’ve been surprised how much base structure is in place, which has allowed us to get all the way to 11th Street. We were able to do the underground work,” said Wilkinson, who noted they had to get the underground infrastructure work done before it’s paved over. The paving contractor, Genco, has done from Government Road to Second Street, and a paving crew will be back in Weyburn by Sunday and may be able to complete most of the paving over the next week, she said, noting this is all weather dependent. Asked about the work on 16th Street, Wilkinson said that project is mainly the replacement of a large storm drain along the boulevard, which is partly under the roadway. Council was also told that this was Wilkinson’s last council meeting, as her last day as city engineer will be on Thursday. Looking ahead to next year, the City has identified King Street from First Avenue to Fifth Avenue as their next high-priority project, with plans to do the work in 2025. Wilkinson noted there has been no significant work or repairs to this section of road for the last 10 years at least, and the road surface has deteriorate with significant cracking and potholes. The City has applied for joint funding through the Urban Highway Connection program, as this is part of Highway 35, connecting up with Highway 13 at First Avenue. The first step this year was to award a tender to Walker Projects Inc. to do the design for road reconstruction and rehabilitation. The tender bid was for $29,900, the lowest of six bids from consulting firms. Wilkinson said the unknown factor for funding for this road is the provincial election, slated for this fall.
Another project Weyburn is involved with is proposed upgrades to 22nd Avenue in conjunction with the RM of Weyburn, as part of that roadway is in the RM while the City’s portion is from Government Road up to the entrance to Evanston Park. The RM has applied for funding under the Clearing the Path corridor program administered by SARM, and to be eligible for funding, a resolution had to come also from the City of Weyburn. • In other council business, councillors were given a tour of the City’s web site for the municipal election, set for Nov. 13, 2024. The poll dates, locations, budget and election worker remuneration were set at the May 27 council meeting. City clerk Tina Clay, the city’s returning officer, has helped set up the web pages for the municipal election along with Kyle Hertes, the city’s communications coordinator, who has been appointed as the associate returning officer. The website went live on July 30, and the election worker application forms were posted on July 31. The candidates booklet has also been posted, with all of the information that a candidate will need to know to enter the city election race. For the public, the web pages will have information about the candidates once they start filing this fall. Nominations for candidates open on Sept. 25, and will close on Oct. 9 at 4 p.m.
Showing how to plant a tree
Photo – Greg Nikkel, SaskToday.ca
Parks superintendent Curtis Block showed the proper way to plant a young tree, at the Tatagwa Tree Day on Saturday morning.There were 140 trees planted on the north side of the Souris River, including poplar, Manitoba maple, blue spruce and silverberry shrubs.
Bonk wins nomination for Conservative candidate
By Greg Nikkel, SaskToday.ca Moosomin MLA Steven Bonk won the nomination to represent the Conservative Party of Canada in the riding of Souris-Moose Mountain when the next federal election is called, after a vote was taken on Friday and Saturday. The nomination will now be scrutinized by the Souris-Moose Mountain riding association, and by the federal party in Ottawa, before Bonk is officially appointed as the candidate for the party. Kevin Kay, president of the riding association, said there is a five-day appeals period for the nomination process to be scrutinized,
and there may be an official announcement by the end of the week to confirm if Bonk is accepted as the official candidate for Souris-Moose Mountain. He noted there have been a number of concerns raised about the process for this nomination, and the association is awaiting more information as part of the appeals period. A member of the riding association, Lyndon Dayman, said he’s asked Kay for a meeting of the association to go over what happened, and noted the association can reject Bonk as the candidate, although it may be overturned by the national party council. He said the nominations committee is
Demonstrating blacksmithing at the Heritage Village
Dave Carlson did a demonstration of blacksmithing at the Heritage Village, as a part of the Heritage Village Days held on Friday and Saturday. All of the houses and buildings were open for tours, plus there was food, live music and children’s Photo – Greg Nikkel, SaskToday.ca activities over the two days.
also doing a review of what happened, but he doesn’t know what might come out of that process. Bonk went up against Torquay Mayor Mike Strachan for the nomination, a process that wasn’t without controversy as the two candidates were only given a tight, two-week window to get their nomination papers in and have the vote held after current MP, Dr. Robert Kitchen, announced he would not run when the election is called. Kitchen said he will continue to serve as MP until that time. For the vote, speeches and votes were held in three locations, in Moosomin on Friday, and in Estevan and Weyburn on Saturday, with the vote tally from all three locations counted after voting was done at the Weyburn Legion. With Assiniboia now added into the riding, members had wanted a voting station there as well, but that wasn’t set up, so the turnout by members was apparently very low, said Dayman. Following the announcement of the vote results by Kellie Sidloski, chair of the nominating committee, Strachan commented, “Conservatives are going to win this riding, and I’m happy to see a good Conservative win the nomination. I know it wasn’t me, but Steven will do a good job.” For his part, Bonk said, “I’m extremely humbled to win this nomination. I want to thank my teammate, Mike Strachan. It was an honourable campaign, and he’s a good man, and I’m very happy with the way everything happened.” He added his thanks to the Conservative members
Steven Bonk
of Souris-Moose Mountain who voted for him, and said, “I will endeavour to represent them to the best of my ability at the next election.” He noted to the members present for the vote results that Souris-Moose Mountain is one of the strongest Conservative areas in all of Canada, “and it’s important we export those values to the rest of Canada. We really are in need of that right now.” Bonk also expressed his gratitude to Kitchen for serving this riding for the past nine years. “I know he sacrificed a lot, and he has the respect of everyone in this room.” Just prior to the candidates’ speeches in Weyburn, longtime Conservative supporter Murray McGillivray voiced his displeasure with the short timeline for this vote, and said, “I am not happy with the way this has been set up.” He pointed out that this kind of short window of time has never happened for this riding over the years, and he has been a member of the party for many years. After the speeches, several members came up to thank him for voicing this concern over the process, telling him it needed to be said.