Town council voted 4-3 on Wednesday against a bylaw to seal a deal between the Town of Fort Frances and Stratton Equipment to develop the old Fort High property on First Street East.
The vote came after a special committee of the whole meeting that was held in-camera (behind closed doors) at the Civic Centre.
Couns. Roy Avis, Dave Bourgeault, Deane Cunningham, and Struchan Gilson voted against the deal while Couns. Sharon Tibbs and Neil Kabel, along with Mayor Glenn Witherspoon, voted in favour of it. “I’m really disappointed,” Mayor Witherspoon said Thursday morning. “If we do nothing, nothing happens.
“For the good of the downtown, it can’t stay the way it is. We could have created jobs, increased our tax base,” he remarked.
A supporter of the deal since it ever came before the town, Mayor Witherspoon noted he’s trying to keep a line of communication open with the would-be developers.
“We want them to come back with something new,” he said.
As one of those who voted against the deal, Coun. Avis said he had serious concerns about how much giving tax breaks and other concessions to the developers might end up costing the town.
“Since the first time it came before council, I always though there should be an upper limit of costs. And that was not done,” he remarked.
“The town should be committed to a maximum amount of money it’s willing to spend, a budget,” added Coun. Avis. “And the administration and EDO didn’t provide that.
“We, as councillors, are dealing with the taxpayers’ money, and we have to be responsible,” he stressed. “We had no idea what it was going to cost.”
In principle, Coun. Avis noted, he didn’t oppose the proposal by Charlie Morken, Steve Both, and Russell Pollard to develop the property into three separate buildings, which would be renovated and used for business purposes, but worried about setting a precedent.
“If you set a precedent, you have to do it for the next one,” he said.
Coun. Struchan Gilson also said he does want to see something done with the property.
“I read the agreement. Intellectually, I would see no problem with it. But I didn’t want us [the town] giving anyone a special deal.
“I wish we could do something there [on the old Fort High property], but I didn’t feel right about doing it this way,” Coun. Gilson added. “I wasn’t happy with the concessions we were going to make.
“I had a gut feeling it wasn’t right.”
While CAO Bill Naturkach refrained from commenting on council’s decision, he did say the agreement on the table was not out of line, especially for a town that just passed a economic development financial incentive plan and wanted to encourage business growth.
“We worked on that agreement for many months. It was innovative, we hadn’t done anything like that before,” he noted. “But then, we hadn’t had anything like that on our plate before.
“The scale of the property was almost second to none for this town.”
Naturkach said while some residents may have been suspicious about the deal because so much of it was discussed behind closed doors, this was normal when discussing financial matters with a private investor.
“The main substance of what we were offering was in the financial incentive plan,” he noted, referring to the economic development financial incentive plan approved by council during Monday night’s regular meeting.
“We worked within those principles. We had parameters, determined by the councillors, all along. And we stayed in those,” he stressed.
As to if the deal is now “dead,” Naturkach wouldn’t speculate.
“I’m not quite sure what will happen. The developers will have some decisions to make,” he remarked. “Some day, it will have to be addressed.
No one from Stratton Equipment could not be reached for comment by press time today.
Geoff Gillon, the town’s economic development officer who had been working to find a use for the old high school property almost since it’s been vacant, chose to say little about the deal falling through.
“It’s unfortunate,” he remarked.
The Rainy River District School Board had announced Sept. 2 that the building was sold for $1. Stratton Equipment had signed a memorandum of understanding with the town outlining their intentions back in July.
(Fort Frances Daily Bulletin)
Fort Frances Times
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