The Downtown Revitalization Project is in the city's sights now that 2024 is underway, with the last hurdle of federal funding in front of the final stretch.

The City of Estevan held open houses while the idea was being discussed to see what sort of input the community had.

With the new downtown's design in hand, the council is now waiting for federal funding which would cover the majority of the costs.

"It's about an eight-and-a-half million dollar project and we've already got $750,000 from the feds for the shelf-ready engineering and all of that, that is now done," said Estevan Mayor Roy Ludwig, "So if we get the roughly six-and-a-half million from the feds, we can go ahead and get the project completed."

The project would be executed over 2024, with the project including work under the street which would need to be done in the future.

"It would start in the spring and would finish in the fall, but again that is contingent on us getting the federal financing because it is a federal project," said Ludwig, "Although we would do the undergrounds which we have to do anyway, they're worth about one-and-a-half million that is budgeted for and we will go ahead with that if we get the federal funding for all the rest. So we're just waiting to see if we do get the federal funding, and if we don't, of course, the project won't go ahead."

Ludwig says it would be cheaper and more efficient to do both at the same time.

Any more projects related to downtown revitalization wouldn't be made through 2024, as Ludwig doesn't want to pass any big projects to a new council.

"These are all fairly big decisions. So this Council is committed to phase one. As for the other phases that would be up to the new council to have a look at because the budget for this upcoming year for this summer has already been decided by this Council."

Ludwig says that he's heard plenty of excitement for the project from the people he's talked to downtown.

"All the people that I've talked to downtown are excited about it and we've got questions and we'll continue to have questions and we totally understand that. But if we do get the money we'll continue to discuss and have meetings with the downtown people and keep them apprised of all of the things that we do have planned and what's going on."