The City of Weyburn set its mill rate for the 2003 taxation year, with public school board supporters to be hit the hardest.

The total property tax bill is comprised of 53 per cent school taxes and 47 per cent city taxes; on the municipal portion of the tax bill, there will be an increase of 1.25 per cent for this year.

On the school side, the Weyburn public board is raising their taxes by eight per cent, while the separate school division will have a zero tax increase this year.

For a public school supporter, then, their overall tax bill will rise about 4.5 per cent, while the separate school supporter will have their taxes go up by about 0.60 per cent.

In dollar-and-cent terms, city manager Bob Smith said the 1.25 per cent municipal increase will amount to $10.86 a year for the owner of an average home worth $80,000, and $74.87 a year on the public school board side, or a total increase of $85.73.

Put another way, for each $10,000 in value of a home, there is an increase of $1.35 a year for municipal taxes, and $9.36 a year for public school taxes.

Comparing the total tax bill from the city and school board for an $80,000 home, the municipal taxes will be $879, the separate board taxes will $927 and the public board taxes will be $1,022.

The mill rates were set to raise a total of $9.3 million for the city's operating budget and $3.3 million for the capital budget; transfers to schools will total $5.05 million, to bring the overall total to $17.6 million.

Work will begin this week on a two-month sewage line project on Government Road that will disrupt traffic.

Mayor Don Schlosser told council work is set to begin on the project later this week to install new twin sewage lines from Coteau Avenue to First Avenue.

"This is a very big project. They'll only be able to do about 50 feet a day, and will take up two months to finish," he said, adding the reason is the line has several house connections along Government Road, and the line is going deep. In addition there are several other lines to work around, including power and gas lines.

As the work progresses, the block they are working in will be closed to traffic. Detour routes will include the road around the fair grounds and alternate truck routes.

The project will shut down during the Saskatchewan Oil and Gas Show, which will be held June 3-5 at the fair grounds; during this week the work crew will move to the Wal-Mart site to do work there.

"I know this is going to cause some problems, but there's nothing we can do about it. It's been in the plans for a number of years," said the mayor.

The children of the late Tom Laing have given a donation of $10,000 towards the upkeep and renovation of the ball park bearing their father's name.

Jim Laing wrote a letter to council advising of the donation to help the Weyburn Sr. Beavers and Tom Laing Park on behalf of himself and his siblings David, Brian and Linda (Werry) Laing.

The family made the funds payable to the city, and Mayor Schlosser said the city will work in conjunction with the Beavers to decide how best to use the funds.

"We trust Tom Laing Park will be kept up in a fashion that represents his many contributions to Weyburn and will represent his high value of quality while it bears his name," said Jim Laing in his letter.

He added he continues to read about city news in the Weyburn Review, and commended the mayor on his job in leading council.

"The problems facing you and council are tough and they don't seem to get easier with time. You deserve credit for the courage you have shown in leading the community and I know many others in Weyburn are thankful that you are their mayor."

Hazco Environmental Services wrote a letter to the city, confirming what president John Thompson told the Review the week before.

"We're the first to realize this is a difficult issue," he began, saying the southern part of the city's landfill site is not geotechnically sound, as it doesn't have deep enough clay, and is not large enough for the company's needs.

Council had suggested either this or an alternate site outside of the city, which the company is now in the process of finding.

Thompson said if a suitable site can be found in the Weyburn area, the company will buy it and operate it as a dual municipal/industrial waste disposal site, charging a small fee to municipalities prepared to use it.

He asked if city staff might be able to help his company find a suitable site and admitted in the letter that it may not be possible to find a suitable site near Weyburn.

The city continues to gear up for the cleanup campaign, with two of the three free drop-off days at the city landfill already held.

Coun. Debra Button said the first free day, May 3, had 226 vehicles bring in refuse, down from 411 vehicles last year, and on this past Saturday there were 70 vehicles, with cool wet weather keeping people away. The third and last free dropoff day is Sunday, May 18, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

At the Green Exchange garage sale held on Saturday, the Girl Guides made about $850, close to the same as last year, said the councillor.

Residential and lane judging will take place on Friday, May 16, the Chamber of Commerce judging will be held Monday, May 26, and the judging of Weyburn and Estevan for the Golden Garbage Can will both be done on Tuesday, May 27. Minor Ball's Green Day city-wide cleanup will be held Saturday, May 24.

Area chairmen have begun looking around their neighbourhoods for problem areas, said Coun. Button, noting one item of concern is junked vehicles. She said in one particular area, the number of junked vehicles jumped from five last year to 21 right now. This will be one of the focusses of the campaign this year.

In other city council business:

· Saskatchewan's 13 city mayors will meet in Weyburn today and Thursday, May 14 and 15, at the Weyburn Inn. Many issues of interest to the cities, including how to handle the West Nile virus, will be discussed.

· The city's final presentation in its bid to host the Junior A hockey national championship, the 2005 Royal Bank Cup, will be made at the Canadian Hockey Association's annual meeting in Regina on Sunday. Coun. Bill Rudachyk said there won't be an official announcement made about the Cup until the contract is signed with the city.

· The number of building permits, and of dwelling units, is down so far this year, but the value is up over three times from last year. There were 11 permits issued in April worth $376,100, to bring the total year-to-date to 18 permits worth $5.05 million. Most of that is due to the $4.3 million for the Wal-Mart store, which began last month. The total at this time last year was 23 permits worth $1.34 million. So far this year there have been two dwelling units created by the construction, where last year there were seven units by the end of April.

· Plans are underway by the Fire Department and related emergency services to hold an emergency exercise in June. The time, place and type of emergency to be created are being kept confidential, so emergency workers and facilities will respond as if the situation were real.

· Users of the service road along Highway 39, going west from 16th Street, will now have stop signs, with the right-of-way being changed to traffic coming off the highway. The changes in stop signs was made at the request of the Department of Highways as a safety measure, particularly for large oil company trucks turning off the highway. In an additional bylaw change, large trucks will no longer be permitted to stop on the north side of First Avenue between Alexander Street and the 7-Eleven store.