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Critics of carbon capture speak up
First runoff forecast of the season
Bruins take step back on the road
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Wed., Feb. 18, 2015
www.estevanmercury.ca
Issue 41
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Mailing No. 10769
Estevan wins McLeod series high-intensit y games wow large crowd By Alex Coop acoop@estevanmercury.ca
Basketball may not be the most prominent sport in Estevan, but anyone walking into the Estevan Comprehensive School’s gym on Wednesday evening would have assumed basketball meant more than anything to the Energy City. The emotional victories came just one week after a pair of tough losses on the road in Weyburn. Hundreds packed the gymnasium on Feb. 11 to witness a long-lasting losing streak come to an end, as the senior girls and boys basketball teams claimed victory against the Weyburn Eagles in the 80th McLeod basketball series, a series many have described as the most intense pair of basketball games they had ever witnessed. “That was the largest crowd I’ve ever seen in our gym,” said the Elecs head coach for the girls’ team, Jessie Smoliak. “The school spirit we had there that night was unreal, and even staff members who have been teaching here for 32 years, said they haven’t seen a basketball game like that.”
Alongside the parents, teachers and friends who consumed the bleachers, the school band was also on hand, playing recognizable tunes and jingles during breaks in the action. The cheer squad performed throughout the night, while mascots dotted the sidelines and got involved with the crowd. The majority of the bustling activity was organized by the school’s Student Representative Council. “We packed the gym the way schools in Alberta pack their gyms for provincials,” said the boys’ head coach, Shane Ross. “The game isn’t even 18 hours over, and I’m still getting calls from people, who I didn’t think knew what a basketball was, telling me how proud they are and congratulating the team.” The support each basketball team received from the crowd was a focal point of the pre-game pep talk for the boys, who focused little on strategy and stressed the importance of playing with purpose. “We wanted each player to tell us what they were stepping on the court for,” ⇢ B1 Adversity
Reagan Wallewein hoists the McLeod trophy high in the air after defeating the Weyburn Eagles at ECS 64-56.
Ministry presents preferred twinning option By Jordan Baker editor@estevanmercury.ca
The twinning of Highway 39 between Estevan and Bienfait has begun to take shape, and it’s the detailed work that locals will be waiting to see next. Representatives from the Ministry of Highway and Infrastructure were in Bienfait Feb. 10 presenting the preferred alignment for the planned twinning of Highway 39 east of Este-
van. The public open house displays at Weldon School also indicated what has been called Phase 2 of the highway twinning plans, with drawing showing a pair of options for potential road work from Bienfait to North Portal and the U.S. border. At the open house, the aerial images of the highway showed the preferred plan would run the two divided eastbound lanes to the south of the existing
highway. East of Estevan, Highway 39 does split, running divided for about two kilometres, and the preferred option as presented would see the south lane of that section removed in places and relegated to a service road for access to properties along the current highway. Access to that service road will come from the Shand Access Road. Matthew Stephenson, senior project manager,
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said that decision was made because while the road is divided, there isn’t enough space for that section to be seen as any sort of advantage. One immediately noticeable change is the intersection design by Highway 39 and 18, which was shown to become a 90-degree turn. “One of the main things we look at is the traffic volume and the collision history at the existing intersection,” said Stephen-
son about the intersection of Highways 39 and 18. He noted the current intersection sits at a “skew” or an angle that isn’t 90 degrees and that’s something they have altered in this preferred option. “It’s never ideal to have an intersection askew like that, so whenever you’re doing a major infrastructure project, such as twinning, you’re looking at locations like this that are out of skew, which aren’t ideal because
it prohibits your sight lines at the intersection. You’re looking for what you can do to bring it up to a common standard of a 90-degree intersection.” They did consider other options like a gradeseparated interchange, but Stephenson said “ultimately the traffic volumes and collision history didn’t justify it.” The ministry has said the intersections being ⇢ A2 No timelines
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