City puts growth agenda into five-year plan

Not wanting to rest on their laurels, the City of Swift Current is looking towards the future with the release of their five-year plan in conjunction with the 2009 City budget.

City Councillor Jerrod Schafer presented the five-year plan at last Monday's City Council meeting, and he is pleased to see the City continue to moving ahead and not sitting still.

The outline spells out a direction for city planning, but changes to the projects, totals and priorities could change moving forward.

"I think the exciting thing for our city is that we haven't gone into hibernation. We are forging ahead with different projects such as the expansion of the water treatment facility, expanding our recreational facilities and things like that."

Over the next five years, capital spending in the amount of $112.9 million has been planned by the City. The rapid growth by the City over the last few years has shown the need to plan for future growth.

The City has budgeted $15 million over five years in order to meet the new regulations for providing safe, high quality water. This includes adding additional capacity to the water treatment plant to support future growth in the city.

A total of $2.6 million has been budgeted towards the opening of the new landfill site and to also crush concrete that has been stored at the present landfill site.

The city has also budgeted a total of $3.5 million for the electric utility so they can continue to upgrade of the transmission line to 25kv which is up from 5kv in order to ensure that all areas of the city have reliable electrical service.

A total of $800,000 goes towards the renewal of water mains located on 6th Avenue S.E., as well as to replace a water main that goes under the TransCanada Highway. As well, over the next five years, the City plans $2.8 million towards operations for repairs, maintenance and to clean the sewer, water and storm mains.

Rehabilitation of city streets, sidewalks , lanes and bridges has also been budgeted at an amount of $10.4 million, which includes $3.2 for bridge rehabilitation.

Protective services has $7.5 million budgeted in capital spending, of which the largest expenditure will go towards implementing a master plan which is already underway. The City is also doing a review as to the best way to provide fire protection for the future boundaries of the city.

Recreational and leisure services were also given a big role in the five-year plan. After the success of the iplex and the quality of events that it has already attracted, shows the value to the city as far as adding to the overall economy. The City has committed $24.3 million in capital spending towards proposed projects such as the indoor soccer/leisure/ aquatic centre which is targeted for 2012. The need to replace the existing pool is highlighted, as it is rapidly coming to the end of its life cycle.

Many ideas and possible partnership are being looked into with regards funding the project in order to see that it is not too large a burden on the taxpayers.

Schafer likes what he sees in the overall plan.

"I think what is very interesting and exciting about that is over the last number of years it has always been out there in our five-year plan, but now we are starting with different federal and provincial incentives that are out there and we are working together with other partners like the two school districts, the health district and things like that. I think we will see some real opportunity come forward with a major facility like that."

gbowditch@swbooster.com