From the Luseland Mayor’s Desk: Welcoming new staff
By Kathy Wurz – Mayor of Luseland
I’d like to wish everyone a happy and prosperous New Year. We began the year with below normal temperatures and then really entered a cold snap mid January. This resulted in a fairly substantial water main break on Tuesday, January 16th, which resulted in a two-day stop to water services before the break could be located and fixed. We’d like to thank all of our town citizens for their patience during this time, we know it is frustrating and our town crew and contractors try to work quickly to get services back online.
We welcome some new staff to our team this year. Dwaine Scheuerman started in January as our assistant foreman, filling the vacancy that we had since Kirk Meyers left at the end of September of 2023. We also hired Caitlyn Jahner as our new assistant administrator, who just began employment with us on Monday, January 22nd, 2024 and will replace Krystal Bazylinski who will soon fill our administrator role when Karyl Richardson retires at the end of February. We also signed a contract with Ty Kohlman of Cactus Lake, SK, whom the Town of Luseland has hired to be our next police chief. Ty started police college on Monday, January 8th, 2024 and will return to work for the town after the completion of college and several months of training with former police chiefs Nate Ekstrand and Jason Mochoruk. In the interim, policing needs will be met by the Kindersley R.C.M.P. detachment.
The Luseland Rink Improvement Committee had approached the town about utilizing the un-developed subdivision owned by the town, which had been getting seeded and the monies used to help pay off the remainder of the pool loan, and finding a similar business arrangement to fundraise for upgrades to the arena. The town agreed that they would consent to the rink improvement committee organizing and seeding the subdivision and using this as a fundraising opportunity for the arena. The Luseland Rink Improvement Committee has also taken over the Trip of the Month and will also use this to fundraise for some substantive rink upgrades in the future. Stay tuned and like their new Facebook page where they will be updating town residents on their progress.
The Town of Luseland is holding a strategic planning meeting on Tuesday, February 6th, 2024 at the town office. Our office staff have conducted a survey, asking for resident input on a multitude of areas, in order to help identify service needs and the priorities of our tax base. We will use this information to help us in our strategic planning and in the budget process; aligning our future plans via taxpayer engagement. If you have not seen the survey yet, please feel free to visit the Town of Luseland Facebook page, where the citizen survey can be found. A paper copy can be picked up at the town office if you prefer.
The Town of Luseland was successful in obtaining a Provincial Traffic Safety Fund Grant through S.G.I. to install a crosswalk system to improve pedestrian safety at the main entrance to town, which crosses Highway 31 over to our town fairgrounds. Minor ball numbers have significantly increased the past year and foot and bike traffic to the fairgrounds has gone up exponentially since usage has increased. We hope that the push button crosswalk system will help make keep our citizens safe. The town was awarded $12,621.00 to install the crosswalk.