ESTERHAZY — One more step in the future of Yarbo was made recently as Esterhazy town council discussed an agreement to restructure the village.
Ordinarily, when a village dissolves, it becomes part of the surrounding rural municipality, and that seemed to be the plan last year. However, just before the calendar flipped to 2025, the RM of Langenburg decided they were not in favour of taking on the village of 48. So Yarbo approached the town of Esterhazy about becoming part of the town.
“Council made the motion to move ahead with the agreement; they are willing to proceed with the restructuring,” said Esterhazy CAO Tammy MacDonald of the regular meeting on May 8.
“This is not something that we’ve ever seen before or done before, but they have approved for the town to enter into a restructuring agreement between the Town of Esterhazy and the Village of Yarbo.”
The next step is for Yarbo’s council to decide whether or not to officially become part of Esterhazy, which will likely be on their next council meeting agenda.
“Their council also have to agree that they would like to potentially be a part of the Town of Esterhazy,” MacDonald confirmed. “We then have to do a public hearing for two weeks so all the communities — Yarbo and Esterhazy — will get an opportunity to speak at it.”
MacDonald foresees holding a town hall meeting open to the public before approaching the Government of Saskatchewan with a decision.
“If both parties say yes, then the ministry creates the paperwork and issues the order,” she said.
For some people, the idea of becoming part of another entity incites questions of identity, but MacDonald noted, this is something both parties are keen on.
“The opening statement of the agreement says, ‘this agreement has been entered into by the Village of Yarbo and the Town of Esterhazy for the purpose of inclusion,” she stressed. “The Town of Esterhazy council said, ‘let’s put it out for the public to decide, ’” MacDonald said.
“Let’s get their opinion on this to see if they think this is a good thing or a bad thing, and let’s do the public hearing, because we still have options. Let’s hear what the people have to say.”
The idea of the two communities joining together first came on Esterhazy’s radar in February after restructuring between Yarbo and the RM was officially put on hold effective Jan. 2. Usually, when a village dissolves, the rural municipality surrounding it receives an annual Communities in Transition Fund for the following 10 years. The province then stops Municipal Revenue Share payments to the village.
The earliest a public meeting could be held would be late June or sometime in July, depending on events happening in the communities, such as graduation.
