Council to look at spending $1.3M on Mendel revamp
Saskatoon city council faces a hefty 2,052-page agenda at Monday’s meeting. Phil Tank provides a breakdown of some of the issues and initiatives that are under consideration.
MUSEUM MONEY
A City of Saskatoon report proposes the city spend $1.3 million to upgrade the former Mendel Art Gallery building to help prepare it to become the new home for the Children’s Discovery Museum.
Dave Hunchak, chair of the museum’s facilities committee, has asked for the money now because he believes more than $500,000 can be saved by doing renovations this year instead of in two phases.
Council is still struggling to reduce the projected property tax increase for 2018. It engaged in an extended debate earlier this year over whether to contribute $3 million more to a University of Saskatchewan rink project. The difference with the Mendel building is the city owns the facility and is responsible for repairs. The report says the $1.3 million would come from a reserve fund for such expenditures. An additional $100,000 would be needed in 2019 and 2020.
The museum is slated to open in early 2019.
BEGGING FOR MORE
A revised panhandling bylaw returns to council for final approval.
The new rules prohibit panhandling near theatres and from anyone using or waiting to use the on-street parking pay stations. The new regulations were approved narrowly by a 6-5 vote in January.
Council is also getting some legal advice before the final vote on the bylaw.
An accompanying report by the city solicitor’s office notes panhandling is protected as a form of expression under Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms. As such, any bylaw cannot focus on prohibiting panhandling, the report says.
Bylaws must focus on the “safe and efficient passage of pedestrians.”
The city must also ensure restrictions on panhandling are not so broad that they effectively eliminate it.
The city’s current bylaw outlaws aggressive and coercive begging. The fine for a first offence is $100.
TAKES A VILLAGE
As the city continues to move ahead with plans for a bus rapid transit (BRT) system, one of the proposed concepts includes “transit villages” at three shopping malls along the BRT lines: The Centre mall on Eighth Street, the Confederation Suburban Centre on 22nd Street and the University Heights Square on McOrmond Road.
The red line proposed in the BRT scheme would run along 22nd, snake through downtown and over the University Bridge to the intersection of Preston Avenue and College Drive. From there, the line would split into two routes on the city’s east side, one travelling north up to University Heights and the other heading east on Eighth. Future transit villages would be located at the intersection of Eighth Street and McOrmond Drive outside current urban development on the city’s east side and in the Blairmore Suburban Centre on the west side.
The transit villages, which would include transit stations, are among the concepts intended to encourage development along transit corridors in the city. Their design is expected to be contracted out in August, but a price is not yet attached to the initiative. The overall cost of the BRT is estimated at $280 million.
HIGHWAY ROBBERY?
A report suggests the city has been underfunded by the province to the tune of $18.8 million over eight years for maintaining roadways that form part of the provincial transportation infrastructure. The city and province entered into an agreement in 2009 to help fund municipal roadways that connect to provincial highways.
The city estimates it has performed $32.5 million worth of road rehabilitation on socalled urban connectors since 2009. The report says the city has only received $3.7 million in rehabilitation funding in the last eight years when it should have received $22.5 million under the terms of the program.