Highway 7 Railway Crossing
Saskatoon City Council will be voting to determine whether trains should be permitted to whistle at the CPKC railway crossing on Highway 7 near the Parkridge neighborhood.
Area residents first started complaining about intermittent noise disruptions in 2020, and the City has agreed to try to improve their quality of life with a whistle cessation order in that area.
If approved by council, a copy of the resolution will be sent to CPKC and Transport Canada’s Rail Safety Directorate headquarters asking for their approval and cooperation.
However, several implications come into play when issuing a whistle cessation order at a rail crossing. This action requires a higher liability insurance coverage, so the City would be responsible for paying $404.50 each year to CPKC. The report from Administration says there is sufficient funding in the transportation engineering operations budget to cover this annual cost increase.
SaskTel Centre
If approved by City Council Wednesday, the SaskTel Centre will continue to be just that for the next ten years.
The Naming Rights agreement between the City of Saskatoon and SaskTel was up for renewal in September of last year. SaskTel recently worked with the City Solicitors office and City Administration on a new contract, which is exactly the same except for the DEED renewal clause. This would allow for SaskTel to have an exclusive window to try to negotiate a naming rights deal for the new Downtown Event and Entertainment District Events Centre.
If approved, the agreement would last until September 30, 2034, however it could end sooner if the new DEED Event Centre opens prior to the end of the agreement. The agreement would cost SaskTel $4.85 million, up from $3.5 million when the last contract was signed.
Flood Control Projects
After already having been approved by Saskatoon’s Committee on Environment, Utilities, and Corporate Services, two flood control projects will now go before City Council.
In December of 2018, City Council approved the nine-year 54.0 million Flood Control Strategy. So far, three of nine projects have been completed, and administration is now recommending that work begin on the next two, a dry storm pond in Meadowgreen’s Cahill Park and a large storm sewer along 24th Street.
The pond would mitigate flooding near the intersection of 21st Street West and Avenue W South, and the sewer would curb flooding for buildings near 24th Street and 3rd Avenue, and 25th Street and 4th Avenue intersections. The Cahill Park project is expected to cost $4.4 million, and the 24th Street project is forecast to be $8.7 million.
Both projects are funded through the Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund and the Storm Water Utility, however, each project is also tied to $500,000 in design costs that are ineligible to be covered.
The projects will be discussed and decided upon at Wednesday’s council meeting.
