(file photo/battlefordsNOW Staff)
Year of progress

Year in Review: City mayor reflects on highlights of 2022

Dec 28, 2022 | 1:58 PM

As 2022 draws to a close, battlefordsNOW is taking a look back on some of the most important and impactful stories of the year.

The City of North Battleford has had a busy year working on large infrastructure projects and other improvements.

Mayor David Gillan said it was a year of progress for the city. The city’s sanitary sewer twinning project tops the list, as work continued on the $16 million initiative funded through three levels of government.

“From an investment perspective, this year we did most of the completion on the sewer twinning project,” Gillan said. “I think it’s the biggest project outside of this CUplex that we’ve ever done. It’s a very large project. This year we got most of it done. So that’s good.”

Now the city will be able to focus on more development in the north part of the city, including the Killdeer Park and Fairview Heights areas since there will be more sewer capacity available.

Another highlight of the year is the smart water meters installation project that started in 2021.

“That was finished this year as well,” Gillan added.

The benefit of the upgraded water meters is that they will enable the city to take remote and automatic readings of water usage. The new system also eliminates water-bill estimates, since it provides residents with up-to-date accurate billing information.

The city was also busy in 2022 continuing with its Underground Pipe and Asphalt Replacement (UPAR) program work.

“We did six or seven blocks of road and underground pipe rehabilitation this year, most of it on 102 Street,” Gillan said. “So that was also a very large project. I’m very pleased about getting all that done before the snow came this year. Our season for rehabilitation of our roads and underground pipe is very short. So obviously, we try and get that done before Old Man Winter comes.”

Another big project the city was pleased to move ahead with was transforming a room in the Don Ross Centre into the new city council chambers, where there is more space and improved accessibility.

Gillan said the city also continued to work on developing strong relationships with its neighbouring municipalities and area First Nations. He was particularly glad to see city council move ahead with a proposal to rename Railway Avenue West, from Territorial Drive to 12 Avenue, to Peyak Trail .

“[It’s] in honour of our Indigenous history here,” he said. “That was a grassroots initiative that wasn’t even initiated by us. It was initiated by the people, which is fantastic. Of course, we supported it 100 per cent.”

Gillan hopes the city can continue with that focus in the year ahead.

“For me, as the mayor, I’ve very proud of the community coming together and being very inclusive, and working together,” he said. “Hopefully, in the new year, we have even more exciting things that we can show for our all our joint efforts.”

Mayor Gillan also wanted to take the opportunity to thank the Town of Battleford for their support in approving a regional recreation grant to assist the city with the multi-plex facilities operations.

“That’s really appreciated,” Gillan said. “We had a lot of talking back and forth. Because we have good relations and we have progressive councillors, we get these sort of things done.”

Angela.Brown@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @battlefordsnow

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