REDVERS — A byelection in Redvers will be put on hold until the fall, which will hopefully be enough time to encourage someone to step up to the plate for Redvers council.
During the last year’s municipal election, the first call for nominations ended with two empty council seats. A second call for nominations filled one of those chairs, but council still has one vacant position.
“With summer around the corner, we thought the timing might be a little bit off, so we would talk about it at the end of summer, and most likely in the fall we would do a by-election,” confirmed Redvers CAO Tricia Pickard.
Transit bus repairs
While a new transit bus is on the way, the old one still needs some work. The town was quoted around $1,500 for repairs to pass the next safety inspection.
Whether to retain the old transit bus or try to sell it will be a decision for council fairly soon.
“We are unsure what we are going to do with that,” Pickard said. “So that’s going to be a topic I believe at the next meeting.”
The new transit bus is expected to arrive in Redvers by mid-May.
Fate of Bordertown apartments discussed
The discussion around what to do with derelict buildings has been rekindled, with both the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities and the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association asking the provincial government for some sort of framework.
At the SARM convention in March, the province announced plans to create such a program, involving local volunteer fire departments using it as a training opportunity with controlled burns of eligible properties.
This could be the eventual fate of Redvers’ Bordertown Apartments on Warren Street—the 105-year-old two storey that has been a tax title property under the town for years.
“We’ve tried to sell it, we’ve tried to tender it and we can’t,” Pickard said. “A lot of small communities are really struggling with the derelict buildings or these tax title properties. All you do is board them up because it’s so costly to the taxpayers and the municipality that they just board them up.”
Pickard estimates a tear down of the building would cost at least $50,000 — something not in the town’s budget.
