When city Councillors convened in the chambers at City Hall on Monday night, a variety of items were on the agenda.

Among them was the renewal of a lease agreement between NavCanada, the governmental body regulating aviation navigation and weather services, and the City of Estevan.

The agreement means that NavCanada will continue to use the facilities at the Estevan Regional Airport to house their weather reporting equipment and human weather observers.

Councillor Greg Hoffart explained the importance of the station.

"It is for incoming flights. It's one thing for the average recreational pilot, but it gets a little more crucial for the commercial, corporate flights that come in."

"It's critical for issues like the water bombers that come in to fight fires and the fixed wing air ambulance from the province," he added, noting that the operation is vitally important for the future of the airport.

With the technological advances of the equipment used to read the weather, however, the human aspect of the service is up in the air.

"There has been some discussion of what to do with the staff out there from NavCanada, as I understand it, but at present it sounds like they are going to maintain those people," said Hoffart.

"They've asked for a two year lease on the space, so that gives us some confidence that it's going to sustainable."

He expressed that, overall, City Council's desire is to have a weather service out there for the air traffic, whether electronically or human provided.