While the arrival of the new year is essentially just changing from one calendar to the next, and a good reason for a day off with a big meal to boot, it has also become the time to reflect on our pasts and dedicate ourselves to a vision of the future we'd like to see unfold.
In Yorkton, as we look back on 2010, many positive things occurred, although they sort of ended up shuffled out of people's mind because of the flood of July 1, and its lingering impact on the city's businesses and residents.
While the flood will forever mark 2010 in Yorkton, there were some major steps taken in terms of the City's future, things touched upon by Mayor James Wilson in his year-end interview with Yorkton This Week (see related story this issue).
The official opening of a new Fire Hall, and the bringing online of an up-to-date water treatment plant are things which benefit residents today, but will also be serving Yorkton well into the future.The key to such facilities is the ability for both to grow to meet the needs of an expanding community.
The water plant can produce enough water to serve a city of considerably larger size than Yorkton is today, and there is the potential to handle additional trucks if required at the Fire Hall as well.
Certainly everything points to expanded needs moving forward.
The two canola crushing plants which held official openings in 2010 have been the foundation of growth in the city through the past few years as they were built and brought into operation, and that has meant people moving to Yorkton for direct, spin-off and other jobs. As Saskatchewan has seen its population grow in lockstep with a vibrant community, those trends have been reflected locally.The key moving forward is managing the growth.
The City made strides in preparing a plan to grow as residents desire when it hosted a Community Strategic Plan Conference in the fall. The results of the Conference are expected early in the new year, but the idea was simple enough, bringing people in the city together to create a collective vision of what Yorkton should look like as a community in the future.
Earlier this month a three-year Strategic Economic Development Plan put together by the City's Economic Department in collaboration with the Economic Development Committee was presented to Yorkton Council. That plan should set a foundation for growth on the business side of the ledger, which of course brings with population growth, and that expands what is available within the city in terms or recreation and culture.
So while the flood may mark 2010, the more important aspects of the year may well be the foundations to orderly growth laid down over the past 12-months.
