The outlook of the City of Weyburn's Building Department is for a fairly busy year in construction, going from the number of inquiries and the number of projects already underway in and around the city, said chief building inspector Doug Mulhall.

"The level of inquiries has been pretty good. Once we hit that warm spell in April, the level really picked up and all sorts of inquiries came in," said Mulhall, adding the city has so far sold three house lots, all in the area of 18th Street south of Highway 13.

For commercial work, Mulhall noted construction on the ethanol plant is well underway, and a number of other projects are ongoing as well, such as a new Tim Horton's location under construction and renovations of the former Gone Hollywood site for Southeast Computer Solutions.

In addition, renovations were completed at the old medical clinic for the Family Place, at the old Kerr Computer store for the Canadian Cancer Society office, and the Smitty's restaurant was completed and opened. Some additional work was finished up at the Colosseum as well, as the north end dressing room was expanded into a larger dressing room in time for the RBC Cup.

Mulhall added the city has been talking to other potential developers for commercial construction, but they haven't made any decisions yet about going ahead.

The Weyburn Builds program is on again this year, as Mulhall noted the program gives an incentive of a 75 per cent tax rebate in each of the first three years after building a new home in an infill area, or an area with older homes. The Builds program encourages residents to make improvements in older areas of the city, and specifies a certain amount of the labour and supplies have to come from local sources.

"We've also had interest in houses being brought in from a farm to the city this year. Our procedures do allow us to do that," said Mulhall, adding that notice is given to neighbouring property owners first.

"There's still a lot of interest for things like adding a deck and making front yard improvements. People should be reminded they still need to talk to us for a building permit, and to check with us for setback requirements," said Mulhall.

The city's main project coming up will be the walkway project between Government Road and Third Street near the Souris River, which was chosen to be the city's Centennial grant project.