Another round of open session City Council went down in the chambers at City Hall on Monday night.

Among the items that appeared on the docket was the concept of establishing a women's safe house in Estevan, for those suffering from partner abuse. Mayor Roy Ludwig liked the idea.

"We think it's a worthwhile endeavor, and we're going to work closely with the stakeholders, provincial government and of the course the Federal government as well, to see what we can do to move that forward."

Others chimed with thoughts, including Councillor Dennis Moore, who suggested looking into whether such a shelter could be tied into an existing program in the Energy City. 

The motion to support the main idea and to contact the stakeholders was then passed.

One other big ticket topic that saw dialogue was the renaming of one of the streets in town. A little bit of debate was in order, as members went back and forth with different ideas as to the format of the title, whether or not it should be the full name or just the last name of the man it is meant to honor.

"There is different lines of thinking on it, but at the end of the day, we talked to land development and I think we'll go with their suggestion," said Ludwig.

The venture would involve changing Woodlawn Avenue to Collins Road, after former mayor Bernie Collins. The motion underwent first reading, with the second and third expected at the next meeting. 

Council also agreed to lower the fees once again for the volunteers at the baseball parks in Estevan.

"They have taken that extra money and fixed things up better than we could have done, I believe, so we're going to do that again this year. It's continually improving, so they're doing a great job and we appreciate it," Ludwig stated.

"Eventually, everything will be up to snuff and they will then be charged their regular fees. The parks should be in pristine condition by then." 

In closing, it was noted that the response to citizen's complaints and the time to service has greatly improved over the past few years, and Ludwig attributes that to a solid core of management staff.

"It's a team effort. It starts at the top and goes all the way down. We have a City Manager that has been in the role just over a year and he's doing a great job. We've got other new managers in different roles, and they're all doing fantastic work. They're listening to the people, getting out there, and accomplishing the tasks right away."

"Unfortunately, in the past things tended to lag, perhaps emails didn't get answered, and phone calls didn't get returned. However, that's all changing. We can feel that in the community. It's a lot more positive, and we're very thankful for that," he concluded.