Business owners, students, and concerned residents strolled through the Underground Cafe Wednesday night to get a first look at and critique the proposed plans for the 20th Street West revitalization project.

The 20th Street West Streetscape open house offered residents a chance to voice their thoughts for the proposed redesign of the aging street.

The proposed plans include wider sidewalks, benches, tree and flower planting, and building murals.

Other ideas would see more street and corner lighting for night.

Councillor Pat Lorje believes city councillors should get a raise and she formally requested an independent inquiry into the matter at Tuesday's city council meeting.

"I would like us to be reviewing this and seeing if this compensation package is fair and just," said Lorje in council chambers.

She suggests someone look at comparable cities such as Lethbridge and Medicine Hat, and compare councillor salaries.

Lorje argued city councillor positions are becoming fulltime jobs as many committee meetings are scheduled for the daytime rather than evenings.

This season is out of the question for people wanting to use Circle Drive South for commuting to and from ice rinks.

That has a lot of parents frustrated, especially when they have to drive their kids to Kinsmen or Harold Latrace.

"It's about 45 minutes for me to get here from where I live, it would be straight freeway if the project was done so probably no more than 15 minutes," said Gail, whose daughter plays ringette at Kinsmen.

"You can't get across the city, it's all congested, you can't get across the bridge."

Construction crews continue to work on the Circle South Bridge as we speak. Although residents shouldn’t expect the bridge to open until the end of July, they can expect to see results elsewhere along the project’s path.

At Tuesday night’s city council meeting, city manager Murray Totland laid out all the details regarding Saskatoon’s largest project, and how other roads affected by the project could return to normal before Christmas.

City Councillor Pat Lorje isn’t too happy with a few things at city hall. At the first executive meeting since the election last month, Lorje made her concerns clear requesting Saskatoon launch a handful of independent inquiries.

Tuesday night when Mayor Don Atchison asked his executive members if they would like to request any enquiries, it was Lorje who stood up first listing five requests. Among those requests was the call for an independent salary review.

So far, the City of Saskatoon still has money in the 2012 snow-removal budget, but it may not last long.

The budget only allows for four snowfalls of more than five centimetres and there has already been two of those major snow dumps in the city in November.

"Right now, we're within budget, but we still have seven weeks of winter to go before December 31," said Pat Hyde, public works branch manager with the city.

Hyde said the city's snow and ice budget is $5.7 million with an additional $1.88 million for road sanding/salting.

It will be a busy night for the new Saskatoon city council. It's the first meeting after the civic election where city business will be dealt with.

Recycling, South Bridge delays, and city debt limits are among the big items that will have to be dealt with on Tuesday night.

Up first on the "to do" list is an issue that stirred up a fair amount of debate in the last term.

All the snow in Saskatoon finally has a place to go as the Valley Road snow dump site is open.

The City of Saskatoon has temporarily opened the site for contractors and the public.

To get to this snow dump, you're asked to use Valley Road, just west of the entrance to the landfill.

City crews will be on-hand to coordinate snow dumping and move the snow around to fit the most on the site.

If the weather warms up this week, the Valley Road snow dump will be forced to close as the ground needs to be frozen to accommodate large trucks.

The 2012 year is already record setting for Saskatoon City Hall as the permit office is reporting over $1 billion in permit sales.

"It wasn't that many years ago we were jubilant about a $200 million a year building permit sales," said Murray Totland, city manager.

"I think it just shows the level of activity in the city, both the housing and construction industries are doing very well."

E. coli scares in Canada and a famine in Africa are both very different problems with one thing in common - food.

“Everybody is interested in food and everybody is interested in food security because if we don’t eat, we don’t live,” said Frances Moore Lappé, an author and activist.

She is joining other food experts and concerned citizens in Saskatoon to talk about what they’re calling the global food crisis and its implications for Saskatchewan.