December 4, 2013
WEDNESDAY New Water Reservoir Opens
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Local Sculptor Gets Adjudicator’s Nod
⇢ B7
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Careers .......B14-15 Church Dir........ B12 Classifieds ....B9-10 Obituaries ....... B11 Perspective........ A6
Business .......... A13 Energy ........A14-15 Services Dir. .... B13 Sports .......... B1 - 6 Community ......B7t
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Thursday
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St. Joe’s celebrates 75 years
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www.estevanmercury.ca Issue 31
Norris Visits SETI
WEATHER & INDEX
Chinese Team Wins Curling Event
Sister Theresa Roddy remembers the game changing moment quite clearly. The dimunitive nun who now calls Peterborough, Ont. home, said the St. Joseph’s Hospital board meeting she attended as the executive director of the quickly aging health care facility on First Street back in the mid-1980s, was one she would probably always remember. “The news we got that day was pretty overwhelming,” she said with a slight smile. The engineers and analysts had done their job and delivered the news that a refurbishing of the existing hospital, which had already undergone four extensions and renovations, was going to cost about $44 million. But that wasn’t all. The board members also learned at that meeting that doing the necessary renovations to bring the hospital up to standards could possibly take up to eight years to complete. Building a new hospital, on the other hand, would cost about $27 million, the experts estimated. “I immediately began to think about the patients. How could we care for patients while construction workers were there every day for years. They would be working around the patients. I just couldn’t see it,” she said. The decision was obvious, and it came quickly after the news was received. Twenty-one years later, Sister Roddy was back in Estevan to help mark St. Joseph’s 75th anniversary as the primary, primary health care provider in the city and region. She and the other sisters in the order had departed the scene in 1993, shortly after the new hospital came to life. It was the Sisters of St. Joseph who saved the city by building Estevan’s first community hospital in 1938, and they were the ones who led the charge that resulted in a new hospital being officially opened in 1992, within the budget and by building huge community support in the process, that support manifested itself in over $12 million being raised on the local front to make the new facility a reality. The nearly week-long activities that led to a final afternoon community social on Nov. 28,
Sister Theresa Roddy, the former executive director for St. Joseph’s and current executive director Greg Hoffort with special anniversary cake. brought the history of St. Joseph’s Hospital to life once again as a few people in the city and surrounding rural municipalities recalled those earlier days with the old hospital and the fundraising drives that were held to either keep it going, or were directed toward the construction of a replacement. Sister Frances Baker who served at St. Joseph’s from 1971 to 1974 before moving on to provide comfort and care for HIV/AIDS sufferers in Brazil (23 years) and Africa (13 years), also made the return trip to help the community
celebrate. She recalled the conditions in the old hospital that had been reworked and revamped a number of times in an effort to keep it relevant and useful to a growing city. Current executive director, Greg Hoffort served as emcee for a brief but meaningful wind-up social in the hospital’s auditorium last Thursday afternoon, an event that attracted aabout 50 people. Hoffort paid homage to Roddy, noting that it was her dedication to the effort that ensured a Sister ⇢ A2
Council begins budget work today With council set to deliberate on the 2014 budget today, it appears a property tax increase is very likely for Estevan property owners. Unlike in past years where council has worked on the budget over a number of nights, they have set aside all of Wednesday for what is likely to be one of the more challenging sessions in years. If they do not complete the budget today they will return Thursday evening for any remaining business. In an interview Friday, Mayor Roy Ludwig said that a mill rate hike is highly likely but did not commit to how big of an increase there might be.
“In the past, we have made mistakes by thinking we were doing the right thing by going for years without mill rate increases,” Ludwig said. “I think what you are going to see going forward are incremental increases every year rather than going for years without increases and then bang, a great big one. “As long as people see that we are moving forward and doing things (with the money), increases every year are not maybe a bad thing.” Word of a potential increase will not come as a big surprise to the general public. As has been well documented, the City is running
with an overall debt between $32 and $35 million. As well, the City recently applied to the provincial government to have their debt ceiling increased to $55 million. That move was deemed necessary to help the City get its financial house in order and begin reducing the debt. With the debt a very large elephant in the room, Ludwig said council will have some tough decisions to make today. “This will be kind of a turning year for us,” he said. “Our debt is high, we are going to take our ceiling up in short term but we are absolutely determined to wrestling the debt down and year by year getting it
to a much more manageable level. “But we still have a city to run and we still have major projects that we have to do. It will be a juggling act; what projects do we move forward with and where we can cut back a little bit and still do what we have to do to have the city progress and move forward?” The man tasked with putting this year’s budget together is City treasurer and acting city manager Jeff Ward, who joined the City earlier this year. Ward said the budget process was a challenging one, but he is confident the City is moving forward in the right direction. “I think this council is
pretty united in what they want to do financially,” Ward said, “and I am pretty confident in the numbers I am presenting them and the account structure we’ve got here. The new account structure will make reporting accounts so much easier so we can consistently review the budget accurately, that was a main focus for next year.” The City of Estevan, and other municipalities in Saskatchewan, will also have to account for a three per cent reduction in municipal operating grants from the province. Ward noted that decrease will result in the City getting $75,000 less than last year.
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