(File photo/battlefordsNOW Staff)

By Josh Ryan

Cautious Optimism

Battleford mayor wishing for smooth reopening

Mar 12, 2021 | 2:10 PM

As the province moves to a slight easing of pandemic restrictions for the first time in months, the Town of Battleford is getting ready for those changes affecting residents and staff.

Mayor Ames Leslie said he has already had conversations with religious leaders following the announcement earlier this week, which stated gathering sizes indoors can increase and places of worship can increase capacity. While church-going is a change, he said it’s likely the household portion has already been underway.

“Now we won’t see people hiding it anymore,” Leslie said.

However, he was slightly surprised by the province’s decision, given the maintenance of a status quo since Christmas as they monitor case numbers for COVID-19. He said they’ll have to see if there’s an uptick in cases, as people will be gathering outside in the coming weeks.

“People are going to be more comfortable with the restrictions, I just hope we didn’t do it too early,” he said.

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The availability of city facilities doesn’t change, but Leslie said this might make it easier on city water works and utilities.

“With people technically allowed to have guests in their home, it may make those calls a little easier for staff, instead of residents trying to not allow them,” he said.

Bridge and channel funding

A pair of releases from the province earlier this week will not have a direct impact on the town, but an indirect influence is possible.

The Saskatchewan government’s advancing of $11.2 million for rural roads and bridges will not give the town an outlet to request funding for the Finlayson Island Trestle Bridge, which has been closed since large runoff last year caused foundational damage. Leslie said they’ve applied for bridges that deal with heavy traffic, but the Finlayson project doesn’t qualify. The town applied for direct funding last year.

“Even if we have to start doing some construction on it, it’s going to be closed for a bit,” he said.

In the coming months, Leslie said they will watch the runoffs reports closely. Council has already had discussions with engineers on whether it’s possible to have some foot traffic on it at a later date.

“If it doesn’t look like the bridge is in peril like last spring when the ice melt came down from Alberta and B.C., can we open it up temporarily,” Leslie said. “There’s a lot of people who use it walk across or ride their bikes across. We haven’t fully received an answer back from our engineers yet, but there’s discussions being had.”

The other provincial announcement, regarding funding for channel clearing, is another the town is not set to benefit from, as it’s focused on rural areas. However, Leslie said the work done on communities where the water eventually flows through the Battlefords, could help this year.

“There’s ebbs and flows to every river, but ours gets really low in late July, early August,” he said. “So, this announcement is something that we will want to pay attention to and maybe have some consultation on.”

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josh.ryan@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @JoshRyanSports