The City of Estevan is reporting a loss from the latest concert at Affinity Place.
The March 13 Lynyrd Skynyrd concert fell about 200 tickets short of what would be considered the break even point, and as a result, the City lost about $11,450 on the event.
In the report provided to council, during the regular meeting on April 13, City treasurer Jeff Ward noted expenses were in line with original estimates, but additional fees associated with sound and lighting, Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) fees and a drop in the Canadian dollar, all led to the loss in revenue.
“One of the most significant changes was the Canadian dollar dropping, which resulted in an increase of $22,000 after the event was already booked,” said Ward’s report.
Coun. Greg Hoffort said the loss, while unfortunate, shouldn’t discourage the City from continuing to book similar entertainment events. He noted since the opening of Affinity Place in 2011, the City has roughly broken even in terms of revenue from the various concerts.
He noted that had the dollar remained consistent from the time of booking, based on Ward’s numbers the event would have garnered an $11,000 surplus.
Coun. Kevin Smith said continuing to provide this type of entertainment in the future is a benefit for Estevan, but said the community needs to support these events if they are to continue.
There were 1,900 tickets sold for the concert, although 2,100 were needed to cover all costs.
Other additional fees for lighting and sound came to $8,000 and unexpected SOCAN fees were another $3,500. Ward noted the City did see an increased profit on merchandise of $10,000.
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Building permits sold by the City of Estevan continue to lag behind 2014 totals for the same time last year, and after a comparable February, fell back even further in March.
This March, the City sold four building permits totalling $715,006, bringing the yearly total through three months to $1,555,874. That is well behind last year’s figures, where 23 permits were sold in March 2014, rounding out the first quarter with just over $5 million.
The figures for this past March stems largely from a $665,000 building permit, which would see a four-unit multi-family residential construction.
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City streets will be getting its annual coat of paint, however, this year Estevan will be switching from a latex-based paint to an oil-based one.
A report to council noted suppliers have advised the paint will be longer lasting.
Council awarded the street painting tender to General Paint, a Regina company, for a total of $22,290.54.
Public works manager Peter Kennedy brought forward some other changes in terms of how the City paints its streets.
He said in the written report, “The future of traffic markings needs to be reviewed. Other municipalities use plastic and glass in the paint to increase evening visibility and wear. Further, the City should start to pursue a basic form of line painting for pedestrian crosswalks and only use zebra crosswalks where the road width is large and not separated by a median. Additionally, the cost of paint and labour could be reduced by not painting curbs.”
There is no legislative requirement to paint curbs, he noted.
