Steinbach City Council has approved the purchase of one more property on Hanover Street behind the T.G. Smith Centre.

At last Tuesday's meeting, council approved the purchase of 332 Hanover Street for the price of $172,900. The only councillor who opposed the move was mayoral candidate John Fehr who notes that the city should look at sites outside of the downtown as they look at the future of recreation facilities in Steinbach. Fehr was quickly reminded by other fellow councillors that acquiring that land is part of a long-term plan to develop that block of the downtown and make it more vibrant. Councillor Susan Penner also pointed out that this land will not necessarily be used to build a multiplex but it could be a multitude of things.

Mayor Chris Goertzen echoed those thoughts. "Whether that gets re-developed into green space, additional recreation space, multi-use facility or other types of facilities. That will obviously be determined yet but this gives Steinbach options for the future," says Goertzen who notes that these properties are investments for the city. "Not only allowing us to develop a long-term vision for that area but also allows some income to take place while we're waiting for those decisions to be made by future councils.