City council has asked administration to draft a repealing bylaw to remove the Sunday morning sports bylaw, to be brought forward for a vote at the next meeting to be held on Monday, Jan. 10, 2005.

The issue had recently been in front of council, who voted on June 14, by a narrow 4-3 split, to reject a request from Weyburn Minor Hockey to repeal the bylaw.

At that time, some of the councillors supporting the bylaw felt only a plebiscite should remove it, as it was enacted in 1988 via a plebiscite.

Minor Hockey, along with other users of the city arenas, asked for the bylaw to be repealed because their numbers were growing to the extent that teams were hurting for ice time, and had to resort to renting out-of-town arenas to give their teams adequate ice time.

The pressure by Minor Hockey has continued, said Coun. Rob Stephanson, who made the request for the repealing bylaw.

"I personally feel it's time to move forward, however it was an issue for the public in the past," he said. With only one council meeting in December, giving notice now gives the public about a month to make their views known to City Hall on whether the sports bylaw should or should not be repealed.

Coun. Ray Hamm said he may not be in favour of the repealing bylaw, but he agreed that it would be timely to bring the matter forward for more discussion again. He also indicated he wouldn't be here for the Jan. 10 meeting, so suggested the bylaw only be given first and second readings.

Coun. Gary Frederickson, one of the councillors who supported keeping the bylaw in place in June, said he was satisfied that if a plebiscite on the matter were held now, the bylaw would not be supported.

"It's up to us to decide. One of the issues is whether we want to fight a court challenge that Weyburn Minor Hockey is prepared to mount if we keep the bylaw," he added, commenting that he would not be in favour of spending taxpayers' dollars to hold a plebiscite on this issue or to fight a court battle. At the June meeting, council was told a plebiscite held outside of a civic election would cost the city about $2,500.

In the plebiscite vote in 1988, the bylaw passed by a margin of 52-48.

Weyburn's Centennial committee is planning for a major activity on New Year's Day to start off Saskatchewan's 100th year in a big way in the city.

Coun. Stephanson said there are plans to hold most of the events in the Jubilee Park area, along with the Weyburn Junior High and Leisure Centre, from about 1 to 4 or 5 p.m. on Jan. 1.

A number of outdoor activities are being planned, such as snow pitch, snow soccer and activities with the snowmobile club, hay rides, hot dogs and hot chocolate "at 1905 prices" along with skating, swimming and entertainment indoors at the junior high.

The committee also want to raise the Centennial flag in Jubilee Park that afternoon, although cold winter weather may prevent that from being possible, he said.

The main activities to mark the province's centennial will take place later in the year, during the first week of August to coincide with the Wheat Festival and Weyburn Rodeo. In addition, Stephanson said the committee has decided to have Weyburn involved with the national competition for Communities in Bloom. Weyburn won the right to do so by winning its population category at the provincial level in 2004.

Meanwhile, plans continue to come together for Weyburn's other major event for 2005, the Royal Bank Cup national junior hockey championship to take place in May.

Coun. Stephanson noted representatives of Hockey Canada and from the national sponsor were in Weyburn to see how plans were coming together, and they "were well pleased with the way things are proceeding."

As with the Summer Games, volunteers are going to be a big part of the success of this event, and so far approximately 200 volunteers have signed up to help.

The need is for about 800-900 more volunteers to be signed up to ensure the national tournament can be held without any problems.

Stephanson noted the RBC Cup souvenirs have arrived, and a RBC store has now opened up in the mall. The souvenirs will also be sold at all Red Wings home games, and as prior to the Summer Games, businesses will be encouraged to dress up in RBC Cup clothing on Fridays.

In other council business:

· Building permits as of the end of November totalled 89, worth $8.4 million, compared with 81 permits worth $28.8 million a year ago. This year this includes 32 dwelling units created worth $3.55 million. Last year's numbers were inflated with the Tatagwa View project which added 135 dwelling units to the total.

· Collection of taxes is on par with last year, with 93.3 per cent collected as of Nov. 30 or $8.9 million. Last year at this time, 93.8 per cent of the tax levies had been collected. The main difference this year is that collection of tax arrears are up significantly over last year, with $310,735 collected so far compared to $162,552 a year ago.

· Two tenders dealing with recycling of materials from the landfill were dealt with by council. Newalta won the tender for the removal of used oil and used oil filters, as they offered to pay the city $3,803 to remove 16,000 litres of used oil, 17 205-litre drums filled with used filters and 1,400 kg of used containers. Meanwhile, Mryglod Steel and Metals won the tender to salvage and remove recyclable metals from the landfill, as they will pay the city $26 per ton plus GST. Over the last 15 years, a total of 863 tons of metal has been removed worth $20,040, with 90 tons removed in 2004 alone.