During last night's meeting of Weyburn City Council, Engineering Director Jennifer Wilkinson presented two RFPs for Council's approval.

The City of Weyburn utilizes overland drainage ditches in various locations within the City for storm water drainage. The purpose of these drainage ditches is to direct storm water flow away from the road surfaces. If not properly maintained and cleaned, blockages can occur from vegetation, debris and sediment build up resulting in standing water ponds and storm drains backing up onto the roadways.

"Standing water presents a hazard to drivers, breeding ponds for mosquitos and can contribute to physical deterioration of roadways and developed property," Wilkinson explained.

She noted the Engineering Department has identified and prioritized four drainage ditch locations that currently require cleaning due to blockages.

"The priority location is the Saskatchewan Drive and 5th Avenue drainage feature. There are no records of this drainage feature being grubbed, cleaned, or maintained since construction in 1988, besides cleaning the outlets on the east end in 2019. This location has mature trees, willows and brush growing within the ditch as well as large amounts of sediment build up at the 5th Avenue and King Street outlets that are restricting downstream flow and subsequently impeding storm water drainage on 5th Avenue."

The other drainage ditch locations requiring cleaning and maintenance are the 16th Street storm drain outlets (directly south of the Weyburn Humane Society) and the Ebel Road drainage ditch extending south between 16th Street and Paul Road.

The 2021 Budget has a total of $35,000 assigned for drainage channel maintenance, and Council agreed with the Engineering department's recommendations that the 2021 Drainage Channel Cleaning locations 1, 2 and erosion control products be awarded to 102115858 Saskatchewan Ltd. for a total cost of $23,576 including tax., and that the 2021 Drainage Channel Cleaning locations 3 and 4 (in leu of location 2) be awarded to Jerry Mainil Ltd. for a total cost of $11,958.03 including tax.

Another RFP up for Council's approval was for processing upgrades to the Water Treatment Plant.

"In 2020, the City of Weyburn hired MPE Engineering to conduct a Disinfection By-Product Reduction Study at the Water Treatment Plant (WTP). The source of water from Nickle Lake has high organics as measured by Total Organic Carbon. Due to the elevated concentrations of organics remaining in our treated water, Disinfection By-products (DBP) in the form of trihalomethances (THMs) and haloacetic acids (HAA) can exceed regulated limits," explained Wilkinson.

The study recommended 3 systems to help address these issues. Enhanced coagulation with a CO2 system can improve organics reduction and filtered turbidity values. Chloramination with an Ammonia System reduces the formation of potential DBPs. A Powder Activated Carbon (PAC) system can be used to absorb total organic carbon as well as address taste and odor issues stemming from the presence of organic material.

Council agreed with Wilkinson's recommendation to forego the PAC Feed system (a cost of $675,000) until next budget season, and go ahead with the installation of the CO2 Feed System at $320,000 and the Ammonia Feed System at $230,000, as the total budget for the projects all together is $1,225,000.

The 2021 WTP Process Improvement Upgrades (Schedules B,C, D) was awarded to Trans Canada Contracting Ltd. for a total cost of $766,237.45. The 2021 WTP Process Improvement Upgrades (CO2 Equipment and Bulk
Supply) was awarded to Air Liquide as outlined in the proposed Gas Supply and Service Agreement.

Council also heard a request from the Young Fellows Club of Weyburn,as they are planning a big event for next summer for their Centennial year. They requested the City of Weyburn be one of only a handful of partner sponsors on the event, for which they've requested a Gold Level sponsorship of $10,000.

"I want to thank you gentlement for what you've done for this community," said Councillor Dick Michel, noting the budgetary timing is right for this request.

Michel told the YF delegates they should have an answer by the end of November.

Read the full Council agenda HERE.