ESTERHAZY — Succession planning is often left near the bottom of any business’s priority list, but Planning & Economic Development Officer Crystal Sabo would like to bring a company that deals directly with that topic to Esterhazy.
During last fall’s Saskatchewan Economic Development Alliance meeting, a chance encounter with a company that helps guide businesses through succession planning left an impression on both Sabo and Esterhazy CAO Tammy MacDonald.
“Tammy and I went to SEDA in October 2023, and we came across this company that does succession planning for business owners,” explained Sabo during a regular council meeting July 17.
“We reached out to them, their presentation was excellent. It’s preparing business owners for that transition.”
Sabo said the company would come out to Esterhazy and provide such a workshop for local business owners, diving into some of the difficult but necessary questions and challenges they face with succession.
“What the goal of this is, is to make your main street not so empty; to help those business owners sell that business, and we maintain those businesses in our town,” MacDonald said, adding that the workshop is important for new and retiring business owners alike. “What’s your exit strategy, and helping them assess the value of their businesses? I think that’s really good, just to keep our businesses viable downtown.”
Hosting such a workshop would be the first of its kind and the Esterhazy Economic Development Committee is strongly in favour of bringing such expertise to town.
“The EDC thought it was great because we haven’t done something like this ever,” Sabo said.
The workshop would cost USD 5,000, with Sabo coming to council requesting either partial or full cost coverage if council so chooses.
“I think it would be worthwhile to do it regionally,” noted Councillor Earl Nickel, to which Sabo suggested selling tickets as a measure to ensure attendance. Sabo would like to see the workshop happen in November, but given the upcoming municipal election, the event may be pushed into early 2025.
When it came to covering the cost of holding the workshop, MacDonald pointed out to council that $20,000 is brought in every year from business licenses.
“It would be well within the budget of what we collect from business licenses,” she said. “It is something one time to give back to those business owners.”
Factoring in other associated costs for the workshop, Council approved a motion to cover the entire cost of the succession planning workshop for businesses, with a $10,000 budget.
WTP contracts awarded
Several contracts were awarded regarding work at the regional water treatment plant, specifically Contract 4.
For framing and finishing of the interior work, Timco Construction’s bid of $420,000 plus a $50,000 contingency was approved by council.
The mechanical portion of work on the west side of the building was awarded to RDH Plumbing with a bid of $90,000 plus a $10,000 contingency.
On the electrical portion of work to the west side of the building, the contract was awarded to CK Electric, with a bid coming in at $69,616 plus contingency.
Finning Canada was awarded the contract for a standby generator and automatic transfer switch, with their bid coming in at $364,027. Delivery of the unit would be between 17 and 19 weeks with delivery projected in January—a much shorter timeframe than the second quote that came in, estimating a year before delivery.
Finning’s quote also comes with a five-year service agreement.
Regional Park agreement
As required by the provincial government, the Esterhazy Regional Park needs a building bylaw. Instead of reinventing the wheel—and given the park’s unique positioning within town limits—an agreement was made for the park to fall under the Town of Esterhazy’s zoning bylaw.
“Since the Regional Park falls in our municipal boundaries, and they’re located in our town, they’ve requested to us, could they just fall under our zoning,” CAO Tammy MacDonald explained. “We put together an agreement here, and it’s basically saying that anything built in the Regional Park would fall under our bylaws, our guidelines, the permits can be submitted here.”
Regional Park upgrades
Flush toilets are coming to the ballpark, thanks to a helping hand from a local service club.
“The Lions Club has very generously donated us $15,000,” said Councillor Maggie Rowland who sits on the park board. “$10,000 of it is to go to putting flushable toilets in the ballpark, and the other $5,000 is to build bleachers in Don Halyk’s memory.”
Councillor Rowland discovered that currently, a one-inch water line runs out to the ball diamonds, which would not be adequate for the toilets.
“We would like to move the bathrooms to the side of the canteen, and then put water into both so that we would have water in the canteen, too,” she told council.
With a water shut-off located at the back of the arena, Councillor Rowland wondered if tying onto the arena water line would be an option to solve the issue.
Councillor Randy Bot made a motion to approve access to the water lines, which was carried unanimously.
