South Munro Industrial Park is nearing development for Phase 2 of development.

December 5th's City Council meeting saw the approval of the construction contract go to KMS Construction Ltd. with the low bid of $3,487,185 -excluding GST.

However, the first motion approved was to use $2 million from 2017's Capital Budget for Phase 2 development, which will see roughly 25 acres of industrial lots become available after construction begins in the spring of 2017. This $2 million will be combined with an existing $1.9 million from the 2016 Capital Budget to equate for the necessary funding for the project.

Mitch Minken, General Manager of Infrastructure and Operations, explains the reason behind the splitting the funds between two years.

"Large projects like this are budgeted over multiple years, to begin with.

There's a budget in 2016 to carry on with engineer and design work for the project. It's just a matter of where we split those years.

It required that we had enough budget money approved before we could award this contract," he said.

For Phases 3 and 4, the last two phases, the budget will be split over two years as well, according to the City's GM of Infrastructure and Operations.

"We have budgeted in subsequent years - 2017, 2018, and so on - for the completion of all four phases of South Munro Industrial Park," he said.

Approximately 80 acres of industrial lots will have been created after the completion of all four phases.

In the meantime, Minken explains that preparations will be made while construction waits for some warmer weather to maximize the efficiency of Phase 2 development.

"We'll start to work with both our engineering consultant and the contractor to get prepared for that.

The work on-site will not start until the ground is thawed out and conditions are ready in the spring.

There will be lots of preparation work done through the winter to be ready to get going on the work - ordering the pipe and other materials for the water and sewer.

So there will definitely be lots of work being done even through the winter," he said.

The City of Swift Current currently has no industrial inventory available at this time.