Here are some of the other highlights from Monday’s council meeting in North Battleford.
Uber in North Battleford?
That prospect was raised at Monday night’s council meeting, but it seems that Uber’s arrival in the city is still a long way off.
At Monday’s meeting, Councillor Kelli Hawtin asked administration whether they were starting to look at any sort of ride-sharing bylaws in the city.
This was in response to inquiries she had received about whether Uber could be able to come to the city.
Director of Planning and Development Jennifer Niesink responded there has been nothing as of yet, though a little bit of research has been done into it.
As for whether Uber will come here, Mayor Ryan Bater noted it was largely up to Uber.
He noted the province has now passed legislation allowing services like Uber and Lyft into Saskatchewan. But those services had so far been primarily focused on Saskatoon and Regina.
They tend to not look at smaller markets “because the economics aren’t there for them,” said Bater.
Still, Bater added that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t have something in place. He agreed it was “something we could work on.”
Good news for Twin Rivers Curling Club
Councillor Len Taylor confirmed the announcement by Twin Rivers Curling Club’s president, Richard Pratchler, that the club has signed a five-year agreement with Curl Sask to continue the high-performance summer curling program at the facility.
The announcement was made at the curling club’s year-end awards.
“We’ve been waiting for that for a while, hoping that last year’s success of the high performance program would lead to something good in the future,” said Taylor. He called it a “great announcement.”
Last summer was the first year for the high-performance centre, which attracts elite curlers from across the province to train for the upcoming season.
Niesink appointed
Council has appointed Director of Planning and Development Jennifer Niesink to be the city’s additional representative on the Destination Battlefords board. Destination Battlefords recently announced changes to the composition of the board that added one additional representative each from their major funding sources: the City of North Battleford, the Town of Battleford and the Battlefords Hotel Association. The appointment was in response to correspondence from Destination Battlefords to that effect. Mayor Ryan Bater recused himself from the discussion for that portion of the council meeting due to a conflict with his employment at the organization.
Places to park
Details were shared meeting about the plans to build a new parking lot this summer to the west of the new Capitol Annex movie theatre.
Director of Planning and Development Jennifer Niesink said up to 60 parking stalls will be added to the lot to the west of the theatre. That would provide for a total of 150 stalls around the theatre, Niesink said.
Included in that number are parking stalls available in front of the liquor store as well as in front of the RCMP building.
Niesink also said new lighting will be installed throughout that area. On May 6 the current light standards will come down on those lots and be rewired with brighter LEDs.
There will be a couple of weeks without lighting there as a result, but after that there should be excellent lighting in the area, she said.
Field house evacuation location
The city of North Battleford has approved NationsWEST Field House as the primary emergency evacuation location for the Battlefords Union Hospital in 2019 and 2020. The Don Ross Centre would be the secondary location.
Tender awarded
The city has awarded the tender for a 2019 Capital Works Project - Cured in Place Pipe Sewer Lining Contract 1 - to Insituform Technologies Ltd. for the low bid of $428,748.60.
The project involves lining 2,254 metres of sanitary and storm sewer pipes at various locations around the city. As Niesink explained, rather than a full dig-up project, specialized equipment would be used to cast-line the sewer line at these locations, and the expectation is it will extend the life of the sewer by 20 years.
The next council meeting is April 22.
