WEYBURN - Weyburn city council gave first reading to a bylaw to close the Queen Street rail crossing, due to safety concerns and plans for widening of Highway 39 to accommodate a new round-about at the intersection of Highways 13 and 39.
Council was told the crossing does not meet Transport Canada’s standards, and there were recommendations made in 2016 and 2019 to close that access to Highway 39.
This is the only rail crossing in Weyburn’s city limits that has had train-vehicle collisions since 2017, and since 2010, there have been 10 collisions, the most recent one on Nov. 6.
Design work on the proposed round-about began in 2022, and in November of this year, the Ministry of Highways issued a tender for twinning of Highway 39 and building the round-about, with a closing date of late December.
Once the rail crossing is closed, Queen Street will be a dead-end that will go up to the south property line of A&B Concrete.
Coun. Ryan Janke said his main concern is one of timing, as he didn’t want to see the crossing closed by March but nothing built for the round-about until 2027.
City engineer Renee Cugnet said a condition of the tender is that construction is to begin with the widening of Highway 39. She noted also the department of Highways is to assume all costs of the construction, and are coordinating with CPKC Rail.
Coun. John Corrigan asked if the City has any real choice in the matter, and Cugnet pointed out that with the widening of the highway, it will go right up to the right-of-way for the rail crossing, so it will happen regardless.
The City still has a number of administrative steps to take to close the crossing, including giving public notice, notice to the Crown utilities in case of any utilities that might be under the road, and a public hearing will be held by council at their next meeting on Jan. 13, 2025.
Formal consent from the Ministry of Highways will be needed for the closure, and once received, the bylaw will be passed and signage will be put up to indicate a dead-end for Queen Street with no access to Highway 39.
• In other council business, the city will make a counter-offer for the sale of six city-owned residential lots on McTaggart Drive at a reduced price.
Wally Maurer proposed buying the six lots for a total price of $180,000 plus taxes, and the show home incentive program be implemented, where a show home will be built on one of the lots, and homes are to be built on the other lots within the next four years.
In making the motion for the counter-offer, Coun. Janke added the statement that this is part of the city’s strategy to get out of the business of selling residential lots.
Coun. Corrigan agreed, and noted the city has a number of other lots around the city that have been sitting idle.
“It’s time to remove these from our inventory,” he said.
Coun. Janke noted he is conflicted on this, as by selling lots at a reduced price they are undercutting someone else.
“There is no easy obvious answer here, but selling these lots and considering offers is the best move right now,” he added.
• An update on the Leisure Centre was provided by Andrew Crowe, director of leisure services, noting they have requests for proposals out for possible options to repair or replace the indoor pool.
The pool had to be closed as they found they were losing about 13,000 litres a day, and ground-penetrating radar determined that the rebar in the concrete basin of the pool is damaged, causing a structural failure in the basin.
The hope is that options can be brought to council by the first meeting of February. Once options are available to consider, the City will also need to do community engagement so that the public and pool user groups can have input as to what the best option will be for the pool.
“We know how important the pool is to the community, so we want to make sure they are part of the process,” said Crowe.
Meantime, the Leisure Centre will remain closed until they are able to open the outdoor pool next spring-summer.
“It’s unfortunate there was nothing we could’ve done maintenance-wise to prevent this,” said Crowe.
