The City of Estevan has counted the cash, and realized a loss in revenue from the Alice Cooper concert held in August in Affinity Place. 

Those in attendance raved about the show's entertainment and the sound quality, but only 1876 tickets were sold of the 2066 required to break even. Expenses reached over $188,500, while income from ticket and drink sales only totaled around $170,800, a $17,700 loss.

However, at Monday night's City Council meeting, they put on a positive front, touting the benefits the event brought to local business and entertainment.

"When you take into account all of the concerts from the beginning, the win-loss, we've roughly broke even. And it is an opportunity to give our citizens, our community, some first class entertainment that they otherwise would have to drive probably two hours or more to see. It's also great for our local restaurants, motels, and local businesses. They absolutely enjoy the fact that we do this, and it gives them a needed boost," stated Mayor Roy Ludwig.

Officials also noted that the day the concert was held may have played a role in sales. The event being held on a Sunday, they speculate that people on a standard five day work week would be more apt to buy beverages and let loose on a Friday or Saturday, instead of the night before they're back to work. The crowd demographic may also have been a factor.

"It's always an interesting dynamic...it varies from community to community. We tend to be a little bit classic rock, I think. Alice did fine, but not as fine as we would have liked," said Ludwig, "It just seems to be kind of the way our community likes their music, more along the lines of classic rock."

The latter genre could be said to include John Mellencamp, who is set to perform October 26th in Estevan. City management believes that ticket sales are already showing a more positive trend for the performer, and with the event scheduled for Friday, they hope that it can even possibly make up for the loss in profit seen in the wake of the shock rock artist's appearance in August.

Other items of the evening included the second and third readings of the new Snowmobile bylaw, which outlines the regulations for operation of the unit inside city limits.

"The Snowmobile Club, I'm sure, will be happy. We gave them a little bit more root in our community. Now they've got a couple opportunities for gas and hotel. We will be monitoring, through police, very closely. Unfortunately, it only takes a few bad actors and people complaining, then we have to revisit that. But hopefully the people will abide by bylaw, and hopefully there will be no issues," shared the Mayor. 

Second and Third reading was also heard regarding the potential rezoning of the Sillers Street area, which includes the recently constructed Habitat for Humanity house, to allow semi detached housing in an effort to boost interest and sales. No negative feedback was heard from the public on the matter, and Council moved forward.

"I was curious as to how the community was going to receive this, because it is a pretty major change," said the City Land Development Officer, Richard Neufeld, "But, it seems to be accepted at this point. Normally this is something you would do when you are doing a new area from scratch, but we'll see what happens. Hopefully, we'll get some lot sales in there over the next half year or so."

Members also accepted the reports of September's land development and water quality, as well as the minutes from the latest Southeast Transportation Planning Committee meeting.