The replacement of the outdoor swimming pool at the Leisure Centre may be spread over a two-year period due to its cost, and the city is also now looking at replacing the heating system for the indoor facility, as the floor heating system is no longer operable, stated a report to city council from the Facilities Committee.

The City of Weyburn was approved for a $250,000 grant for the outdoor pool project, but the project's total cost is estimated to be around $750,000, which means the city has to come up with the balance of $500,000 to go ahead with the project.

To help spread this cost out for the city, it was suggested to spread the work over two budget seasons, with a suggestion for excavation work to begin this fall after the outdoor pool closes for the 2008 season.

At the committee meeting, an engineer toured the Leisure Centre and was shown the problems the city is having with heating the building properly.

The floor heating system is no longer operable, and the building has a non-existent vapour barrier. During the recent cold weather, there was ice buildup in several areas of the building which displaced window casings; also the current roof units were not designed to handle severe winter weather and are not able to keep the building warm.

The engineer will forward a report to the city with recommendations of how to address the problems.

The committee also looked at a suggestion for using the seats from the Brandt Centre in the Sports Arena, but it was found the riser dimensions do not make that possible. If the seats were installed on the top back row, there would be more standing area lost than would be gained in seats, so the seats remain for sale by the city.

The city was asked to waive a requirement of the zoning bylaw in order to allow the expansion of the Pharmasave store to proceed downtown.

With the demolition of two old buildings adjacent to their current store on Third Street, Pharmasave has a plan for a 50-foot by 110-foot expansion, which will double its size when completed.

The zoning bylaw requires three on-site parking stalls to be provided in conjunction with a development of this size; if the developer opts not to provide the space, they have to make a payment of $4,100 in lieu of each parking stall.

Council agreed with the company's request that this payment be waived, and provided three reasons why it would make sense. One, the city provides public parking in the lot behind the Pharmasave store; two, the city will benefit by keeping the maximum sidewalk width in front of the existing store and the addition, for use by the public; and three, the company will pay a reduced fee of $100 per stall waived, for a total of $300 plus GST.

The city gave its approval to a number of subdivision requests from the RM of Weyburn, including both commercial and residential lots to be developed this year.

The first proposal is for a subdivision to create nine commercial or industrial lots near the city landfill on 22 Ave. SE, with lots sizes ranging from 1.75 acres to five acres. The lots fit into the RM's overall plan for the area, and allows room for future development in the area as well.

The city is not an approval authority, but as the land is adjacent to the city, their comments about the proposal are sought by the province's Community Planning Branch before approval is given to proceed.

The second proposal is for Phase 1 of a three-phase proposal to build 95 residential lots in an area 3.5 miles east of Weyburn near Highway 13. The first phase, by an Alberta developer, is to create 25 lots of about two acres each.

One of the issues the developer will have to deal is that a tributary of the Souris River runs through the area, plus there is no water service there currently; the developer would have to approach the Weyburn Utility Board to find out if they will be allowed to hook in to get city water.

The city introduced a new bylaw for the licencing of trailer parks in the city, to deal with the difficulties of collecting fees from trailer owners.

"Prior to this, we were having a significant amount of trouble collecting trailer fees from the trailer court," said city manager Bob Smith, and the bylaw was drawn up with the advice of the city solicitor.

Under the terms of the new bylaw, a fee of $445 will be charged for each trailer, and will be sent to the owner of the trailer park rather than the individual owners of the trailers. It will then be up to the park owner to collect the fees; the bylaw will be retroactive to Jan. 1, 2007.

If the fees are not collected, the city can then add the unpaid fee to the tax roll of the trailer park, and it will form part of the operator's taxes, according to the bylaw.

In other council business on Monday:

· Building permits are down slightly from January of 2007; as of the end of January, there were four permits issued worth a total of $310,000. A year ago, there were eight permits issued worth $622,000. For tax collection, the city collected 37 per cent of the year's taxes by the end of January, as some taxpayers opted to take advantage of the three per cent discount offered for early payment. This is down slightly from last year, when 40 per cent of the taxes were paid in January.

· The fuel and oil tender were awarded to the lowest bids, causing a councillor to question whether a Regina supplier should have been given the tender for the supply of oil. The Weyburn Co-op won the tender for fuel supply with their low bid of $205,440, but lost out the oil tender to Boss Lubricants of Regina, who underbid the Co-op by $784. Coun. Dick Michel noted the Co-op pays taxes to the city, and asked if the city has any leeway to allow a local supplier to win a tender; it was pointed out the city's policy is to go with the lowest bid, with no preference necessarily given to local suppliers.

· The first meeting for the Communities in Bloom committee was held on Feb. 8, and Glenn Rogers has agreed to chair it again this year; invitations will go out for other committee members, as the city vies to win recognition for the most beautiful city of its size in Canada;

· The city gave event permits for three upcoming events in the city; one is for a gala evening on March 6 at Signal Hill in celebration of International Women's Day, with wine to be served and an art auction held, with the proceeds going to VIP; the second is to CUPE Local 5999, which plans to hold an event in Memorial Park beside City Hall for Aboriginal Day on June 21, with plans to include dancers, a barbecue and speakers; and third, the SaskTel Pioneers will hold an event in celebration of SaskTel's centennial; the event for SaskTel employees, retirees and their families will be held June 16 at the Curling Rink.