City council was urged to continue gathering information on whether the city should continue to pick up commercial refuse, after conflicting opinions were given Monday night by businesses and the South Central Health District.

The Weyburn Chamber of Commerce sent a copy of the resolution passed at its special meeting on Aug. 22, plus letters were received from the Weyburn Square Mall, Weyburn Co-operative Association and the health district; a delegation from the health district also attended council on Monday to express their views.

The city was urged by the South Central Health District to continue providing the service of picking up the garbage from their four facilities in Weyburn, citing a high quote for the service from a private contractor as a major concern. The health district currently pays a total of $715 per month for the city to do daily pickups from the Weyburn General Hospital, Weyburn Special Care Home, Souris Valley Extended Care Centre and the Community Services Building.

According to a quote from Stewart Steel to the health district, the contractor would charge $2,600 a month for the same service. No quote was available from Regens Disposal, the other private contractor in Weyburn.

"We've been happy with the service provided by the city. We realize you have cost pressures as we have. We could probably tolerate a price increase more so than paying a private company three times as much. We'd prefer to keep city employees working," said Lloyd Searcy, vice-president of operations for SCHD.

The city would be a more stable supplier of the service cost-wise than a private contractor would be, he added.

The price will have to increase in any event, said Coun. Ray Hamm, noting the loss of revenue is the main reason council is seeking the views of the business community about whether they should give up commercial refuse pickup altogether.

Chamber manager Jacqueline Garbutt said a resolution for the city to continue picking up commercial garbage was approved 14-1, with 17 people abstaining from voting. The resolution also asks that the city continue using the same size dumpsters as are now in service.

The number of people not voting on this issue was of concern to Don Kraft, manager of the Weyburn Co-op, who also pointed out a number of business owners were not present for the meeting - in particular, restaurant owners.

"The Weyburn Co-op prefers to see the garbage collection go to a private contractor, and would like to suggest this because we recognize the City of Weyburn's existing equipment can not meet the needs of a large business," said Kraft in his letter to council, adding the city could investigate a pick-up service for smaller businesses which don't produce very much refuse.

Joyce Kellett, manager of the Weyburn Square Mall, said in a letter that they have used Regens Disposal since 1997, and suggested more information needs to be made available to all businesses before council reaches a decision on the matter.

"Perhaps each of the private contractors and the city should make prices available to all businesses. To be accurate, these price quotes would have to include the capacity of each trash bin, the rental cost of each bin and the cost of once per week, twice per week and daily pickup," said Kellett.

The city has told the chamber they will have to replace a truck at a cost of $105,000 if they continue to pick up commercial refuse, but city engineer Bob Kinash told council it would cost the city in the range of $300-400,000 to buy a larger truck capable of lifting a large bin overhead.

"We're probably looking at half a million dollars to get fully into the commercial business. The long-range goal is to go into a regional landfill where we're just a partner and we'd be sharing all this equipment," said Mayor Don Schlosser, adding council will have to decide the city's direction in the next couple of weeks.

He said one of the contractors has hinted at moving out of Weyburn at the end of September if the city doesn't get out of commercial refuse collection.

Later in the meeting, the mayor said he would like to hear from a lot more businesses, in writing, on this issue, and asked administration to do more investigating on the cost factors as well.

The city's five-year capital plan, released on Monday night, includes plans to spend $1 million to renovate the Federal Building to house City Hall in 2001, along with $1.5 million the same year to construct a primary lagoon and $1.2 million in 2002 for a new storage reservoir, plus the completion of the library renovation and addition project in 2001 at a cost of $657,700.

The lone dissenter on the plan was Coun. Mike Pickering, who felt the city cannot afford to spend $1 million on the new home for City Hall next year.

"I feel we're not in a position to pay for this. We haven't seen any plans as to where the million dollars should be spent," he said.

Mayor Schlosser pointed out the five-year plan is basically a wish list for the city as it plans out its capital expenditures, and is not necessarily engraved in stone.

"We had things in the budget 10 years ago that are still waiting to happen," said the mayor, adding, "We definitely have to move ahead. We don't want to spend our money foolishly, and if we do I hope we're told about it."

For the primary lagoon, the plan is to also spend $130,000 in 2002, $100,000 in 2003 and $1.3 million in 2004, for a five-year total of $3 million. The one-million gallon storage reservoir would see additional expenditures of $300,000 in each of 2003 and 2004 for a five-year total of $1.9 million.

The Fire Department is planning to take delivery of a new $235,000 truck early in 2001 as part of the five-year replacement of the pumper units.

In addition, with a new multi-year infrastructure program expected to come from the federal government, the city is hopeful to see substantial funds in 2003 to make a $500,000 sidewalk and curbing replacement program possible.

A major upgrade or replacement of the Colosseum has been put off for a number of years, with the capital plan setting aside $40,000 in each of the three years from 2002-04 to upgrade the facility.

In a separate decision, council approved the naming of an architect to head the renovations of the Federal Building, and Mayor Schlosser told council that the city has purchased the former Co-op parking lot (adjacent to the Knox Fellowship Hall on Second Street) as a new city parking lot in behind the Federal Building. The current tenants of the building, Canada Post and the PFRA, have both finalized new locations where new buildings will be constructed to house them.

Two members of the Weyburn Police Service were at council for special recognition on Monday evening.

Mayor Schlosser announced the promotion of Sgt. Rodney Horsman to the rank of inspector, effective Sept. 1, filling a position last held by Chief Bill Millar seven years ago.

Sgt. Horsman has been a member of the Weyburn police force for 23 years, and was promoted to sergeant in 1993; he was also awarded an exemplary service medal in 1997.

Chief Millar said as inspector, Horsman will be second in charge of the police department, and will assist with some of the operational details of running the force.

"The administrative part has increased significantly and there needed to be a second-in-charge to spread those out a little bit," he said Tuesday, noting the Police Commission discussed the matter at length before deciding to make the appointment.

"I'm looking forward to progressing with his appointment. I think Rod will do a very good job for the police service and for the community," said the chief.

In addition, Chief Millar awarded a Chief's Commendation to Const. Terry Kerr, for his part in capturing those responsible for the robbery of the Bank of Nova Scotia on June 30.

Const. Kerr is a 10-year member of the force, and played a crucial role in the capture of William Ouellette, who eventually pleaded guilty to the bank robbery and will be sentenced in a Regina court in September.

Council officially approved a name change for the Sports Arena, as it will now be known as the Tom Zandee Sports Arena. A dedication ceremony will be held Sept. 16 at the Red Wings home opener.

Coun. Bill Rudachyk said the city wanted to honour Zandee as he and wife Elaine will be moving to Victoria, B.C., and Zandee was a crucial leader in the effort to get the second ice surface.

Zandee served as a teacher and principal of the Weyburn Comprehensive School, and was involved in most of the city's minor sports organizations, including ball, minor hockey and the Red Wings.

"I think one of the things that distinguishes Weyburn are the number of volunteers we have. We owe it to them to recognize their efforts," said Coun. Ray Hamm.