The town south of Moose Jaw is staying busy as Assiniboia is tackling a couple of big projects right now.

Water has been top of mind for residents and city council as they work on the conservation, quantity, and quality of it.

Recently, to help their conservation efforts of the resource they've changed when people can use water based on civic addresses. For example, houses or buildings with an odd number address can only water their lawn or garden on odd-numbered days, and vice versa with even numbered houses on even dates.

Timing has also played a factor in their conservation efforts. Now Assiniboians are only allowed to water their yards between 5 am and 9 am and 6 pm and 10.

"It's mainly for people to use water wisely," explained Mayor of Assiniboia Bob Himbeault. "Certainly they're starting to do that because we priced water for cost of production. So people are paying for what they're using and certain people have seen the increase in their water bill but that's the way it goes. It's utility and it's supposed to be self-sufficient."

As for the quality and quantity of their water, the Assiniboia Water Treatment Plant is undergoing major upgrades. Something Mayor Himbeault wants to tackle before it becomes an issue.

"Our water treatment plant upgrade is going very well. It's a long project it won't be completed probably until next spring but that's about a 2.2 million dollar upgrade there," Mayor Himbeault explained. "We're maintaining about twenty-four blocks of trench fill and crack fill and then we've got about thirteen locations of some deep repairs we've got that we need to do. You know, water and sewer have been dug and they need to be dug out and repaired."

Another huge project Assiniboia is undertaking is building a new rink.

Talks about new federal infrastructure grants now including recreational facilities got them talking about the project more. They're just waiting for the opportunity to apply. If this falls through or ends up not being true, then they plan to continue on with building a new rink in the spring of 2019.

Their current rink, the Assiniboia Civic Centre, was built in 1956 as a building for grain storage, with a lobby, arena and dressing rooms being added in 1963.

With all these projects going on, Mayor Himbeault is excited about the year to come.