WEYBURN - Norm McFadden will run for a second term as reeve of the RM of Weyburn, he said in an interview on Monday, just after he filed his nomination papers.
McFadden had previously served one term as councillor for Division 5, and four years ago was elected as the reeve.
For this last term, the RM council had met some of the goals they set out to do, such as the new Nickle Lake road, the new office building on First Avenue and establishing rec agreements with the City of Weyburn, among others.
“I believe there’s still a lot that can be done in the RM,” said McFadden, noting one of his next goals is to get the road to North Weyburn and the airport paved.
“We’ve been putting money away for that,” he said, noting a major project will be starting next year with the Department of Highways, to twin Highway 39 and to replace the intersection at Highways 39 and 13 with a traffic circle.
The tenders for these projects will not go out until after the upcoming provincial election, but he said it’s possible that some preliminary work could be done before the snow flies if things work out timing-wise.
McFadden admits he’s not necessarily a fan of traffic circles, “but it will be safer what it is now.”
One of the major issues for the RM will be the proposed wind turbines that Enbridge is proposing to build, with about 27 turbines to be in the RM of Weyburn, and the balance in the neighbouring RM of Griffin.
“As a council, we represent everybody in the RM. We represent people who don’t want the wind turbines, and people who do want them, and there are people who don’t care one way or another. We can’t take sides,” said McFadden.
While Enbridge has paused the process to seek an amendment to the RM’s zoning bylaw on setbacks for the turbines, the RM has put a moratorium on the project as well, said McFadden.
He pointed out that if and when the council amends the zoning bylaw for setbacks, it goes to Community Planning, and they will either approve it, reject it or ask that it be changed, and this applies for anything the council might do on the project.
The reeve noted that with the turbines being built near Kipling, he was told that RM will expect to receive about $16,000 per turbine per year in taxes. If Weyburn were to receive something similar for the turbines being proposed here, that could offset the amount of taxes the RM levies on its ratepayers, he said.
In the meantime, the council wants to put forward a resolution at the next SARM convention, to lobby the government to put in regulations, as currently the province has none to regulate the development of turbines, and it comes down to the local RMs to try and determine how to regulate them.
Meantime, McFadden said he had a steep learning curve in taking on the role of reeve four years ago, and believes he is still learning something every day.
“I’ve enjoyed it, and I believe there’s lots of potential in this RM,” he said.
A large part of what has made the position enjoyable has been the high quality of staff in the office and in the RM, along with the other councillors.
McFadden also supports having a strong relationship with the City of Weyburn, pointing out that they are able to help each other, and both municipalities benefit when there are new businesses in the City or in the RM.
As an example, he noted that the farm implement dealerships moved into the RM because they needed bigger space, but the bigger dealerships have brought in more staff who live in the city.
One other major project he’d like to see happen is to build and designate a truck route, and the RM has had discussions with Highways about doing that, possibly in conjunction with the twinning of Highway 39. Part of the truck route would be the P&H road, which is the grid road going south from the Airport road to Highway 39.
A lot of trucks already use this road, but if it was built up and paved, it could become a truck route that could take trucks off Highway 13/First Avenue. While First Avenue has just been paved, it won’t stay in good condition very long if semis continue to go through the city on it, he said.
“If that road gets paved, maybe developers might be interested in bringing in more businesses to set up there,” he said. “Our job is to attract business tax dollars. That’s what pays for looking after the roads and the more people we can attract here will help keep our taxes low.”
