Moose Jaw Times-Herald: Lisa's Corner: A fan-tastic experience at Fan Expo Regina

By Lisa Goudy

For the third year in a row, I attended Fan Expo Regina and for the third year in a row, I walked away unbelievably ecstatic.

So many things make this event great every year– the celebrity guests, the photo ops, the panels with a Q&A section, the autograph area, the floor with tons of exclusive and one-of-a-kind merchandise and the countless costumes of different characters from a variety of fandoms.

This year was no exception. Fan Expo Regina was a magical experience once more, held this past weekend. The first year had 8,000 attendees. The second year had more than 15,000. I haven’t seen any official estimates yet, but if I had to guess based on how busy everything was, especially on Saturday, I would guess the third year topped 2015 attendance.

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Moose Jaw Times-Herald: ‘Singing is Life’

Living Skies Chorus set to perform

By Lisa Goudy

Voices are going to take the audience to the movies at the Mae Wilson Theatre at the Moose Jaw Cultural Centre on Saturday.

With four choruses and six quartets, the Living Skies Chorus, Harmony 2 Go Youth Barbershop Chorus and the Prairie Gold Chorus will perform a concert, Singing is Life, on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at the Mae Wilson Theatre. They will also perform a show in Regina on May 6 at 7:30 p.m. at Knox Metropolitan United Church.

“It’s going to be fun. Everybody who has ever gone to our show says how much they enjoy it,” said show producer Lynn Lowes. “Everyone has said they’ve really enjoyed our show.”

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Moose Jaw Times-Herald: Timeline of LIP for cast iron water main replacement

By Lisa Goudy

Here is a look at the timeline of how council came about its decision for the plan for cast iron water main replacement.

Feb. 9, 2015 – Council adopted a resolution to authorize the development of a long-term policy on cast iron water main replacement as well as near-term funding options for it.

March 17-31, 2015 – The City of Moose Jaw held cast iron water main replacement program public consultations and presented seven funding options for public input, online during this entire period and in-person on March 17, 18 and 19. The highest percentage of consultation results were 49 per cent for funding using various sources, 43 per cent for using a portion of city reserves and 40 per cent for a local improvement program (LIP).

May 4, 2015 – Council authorized city administration to proceed with the required steps to establish a non-petitionable local improvement program to cover 30 per cent of the cost of water main replacement in the city.

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Moose Jaw Times-Herald: Defending LIP funding model

Mayor Deb Higgins shares her reasons for supporting the LIP 

By Lisa Goudy

Mayor Deb Higgins stands by her support of the city’s local improvement program.

“I realize it has an impact on people and on individuals. I realize that it is a shock to many people when you start talking about the cost of the program as a whole,” she said, “but I have to say we are at a point where we don’t have a choice. We’re absolutely at a point where we need to move this forward, choose the best option available to us and I truly think council has done that.”

On Monday, council passed the LIP cast iron water main construction bylaw in a vote of 4-3. The LIP will see the community as a whole pay for 70 per cent of the program and abutting property owners, who “will see the benefit,” pay for 30 per cent, she said. Cast iron pipes will be replaced with PVC (plastic).

The 70 per cent will come from a 2.25 per cent tax rate increase applied annually to cast iron water mains from 2015 to 2017 to account for $1.54 million, $2.23 million per year from water rates, $1.61 million from the LIP from property owners who directly benefit from the work, reserves for financing property owners who choose to amortize their payments and $480,000 in savings from reduced operational costs. Residents will not be billed until all of the work in phase one is finished, expected in fall 2016 or early winter 2017.

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