The Souris Valley property will remain in its current condition, after city council defeated a motion on whether to send in a city crew to cut down the long grass and clean the area up.

At the regular council meeting on Monday night, council was informed that the Chinese company which now owns Souris Valley were issued a cleanup order on June 12 to clean up the property by July 3, and as of Monday, July 9, nothing has been done and the company has not been heard from.

Coun. Bill McKenzie noted the city has a policy to deal with property owners, and said these owners should not be treated any differently than any other taxpayer in the city if they were forced to cleanup their property.

"I know we have a policy, but I will not support a policy that way, by costing our taxpayers $4,000. These people paid $1 for the building. These people have to be responsible for what they've purchased. I will not use $4,000 of the taxpayers' money to clean up a mess they should be cleaning up," said Coun. Dick Michel in speaking against enforcing the cleanup order.

Coun. Bill Rudachyk disagreed, pointing out if the city does do the work, the taxpayers won't be out the money because the bill would then be put on to the tax bill for the company.

Mayor Debra Button said she also would not support sending in a city crew to do the cleanup, noting that company officer John Lee indicated they would be on the site in early July, and to give them a chance to take care of their responsibility.

"It's a bandaid solution for a long-term problem," she added.

Asked if she had had communication with the company, Mayor Button said she hasn't, but was going by the letter that had been sent to the city manager in June.

"I have a hard time treating taxpayers differently. If someone with a regular residence has not performed the work from a cleanup order, we don't say it's going to cost something, we just go in and do the work," said Coun. McKenzie, adding, "We have a policy in place, we've done the due diligence. The place is a disgrace, not only to the city but to the province. This is a heritage building. They should be dealt with like any other taxpayer."

In the vote, Mayor Button and councillors Nancy Styles and Dick Michel were against sending in a city crew, and as it was a 3-3 tie, the motion was defeated. Councillors McKenzie, Rudachyk and Dave Craigen were in favour of enforcing city policy, and Coun. Rob Stephanson was absent from the meeting.

Council approved a request for a tax incentive, which will allow Pharmasave to double the size of their store by next spring.

In the proposal, the owners plan to demolish the two older buildings immediately to the north of their store on Third Street downtown and build new, plus refurbish and renovate their current 5,500-square-foot store space to create a new store about 11,000 square feet in size.

Council approved a three-year tax concession for the project which will grant a 75 per cent tax rebate in the first year, 50 per cent in the second year and 25 per cent in the third year.

Jack Jones said they expect to get underway with the demolition and construction this fall with the plan to have the building up before the snow flies, and then to work on it through the winter to finish up by about March or April next year.

"This is a huge project for us. Once we get the new part ready, we'll move all of the stock in the current store over and then refurbish the existing store," said Jones, adding these plans have been in place for a while, and the opportunity seemed right to go forward with it this year. The current store was built in 1988.

He expects the complement of staff will grow by about four or five full-time equivalent positions; currently, with full and part-time workers, the store employs around 30 people.

City council voted to send the next phase of renovations to the Colosseum to tender, which will see the south side of the arena renovated, and for the project to include installation of new seating.

Earlier in May, council had passed a motion to buy and install 701 new seats in sections A, B, G and H in the Colosseum. The new motion is to have the seat installation included as part of the renovations work. The cost of the new seats is estimated at $150 each, installed, or a total of $105,150.

In the meantime, the city will not be using the seats they bought from the Brandt Centre, which are in storage at the ethanol plant, and are trying to sell them. The city tried selling them through the SPRA website, but no response has come to the city yet.

According to information from the city's facilities committee, the project would not begin until the spring of 2008, after the Red Wings are done their next season.

Council approved extending a lease agreement for the city's farm land from one year to five years by the Weyburn Riding and Driving Club, as they want to invest money in fixing up some of the buildings at the city farm.

The club wants to invest about $10,000 in fixing the roof and painting buildings at the farm, but would not do so unless they could be assured of a more long-term arrangement than year to year, which has been the arrangement up until now.

The club indicated they have grown significantly in recent years, going from six members with 14 horses in 2003, to 15 members with 44 horses currently, and growing. The terms of the lease include the yearly rental fee of $1, and includes 17 and a half acres and two buildings immediately west of the Souris Valley grounds.

The City has entered into an agreement with the Weyburn Chamber of Commerce and the Southeast Regional Economic Development Authority (SEREDA) to provide the city's tourism services.

Under this agreement, which will cost the city an annual fee of $60,800, SEREDA and the Chamber are responsible for promoting tourism and encouraging new tourism development for the city, including developing a new guide each year and promoting the city through the Southeast Tourism Association.

Part of the new job for SEREDA too will be the implementing and promoting of events as outlined in the brand new tourism plan, which will act as the future road map for tourism goals for the city.

In return, the SEREDA will provide a regular report back to council on what tourism activities they're doing.

"It's very important for city tourism. It can bring so many positive things to the city, it's hard to measure in dollar terms," said Coun. Michel.

Building permits and lot sales continued in June, and the lots are nearly depleted in the city as a result.

The city has sold 51 lots as of the end of June, compared to 37 in all of 2006 and 14 in all of 2005.

For building permits, the city has issued 85 permits worth a total of $10.26 million, compared with 57 permits worth $4.456 million at this time last year.

Of these, there are 25 new single family dwellings and 24 multiple family dwellings for a total of 49 new dwellings, worth $7.996 million, compared to 15 single family dwellings worth $2.6 million at this time last year.