Peggy Revell
Aiming for approval from the Town of Fort Frances to start building the new Robert Moore School, the Rainy River District School Board passed a series of resolutions concerning the site plan agreement at a special meeting this morning.
While Superintendent of Business Laura Mills said this is the first time the town has required a site management plan for the board’s building projects, she noted the town has a right under the Planning Act and Municipal Act to require an agreement before granting a building permit.
As part of this site management plan, the town is requiring that the school board, within three years of completion and relocation of the new school, apply for a permit to demolish and remove the portion of the old school that will not be in used, Mills said.
In conjunction with this, the board also ended up voting on a resolution this morning that established a security in the form of a GIC in the name of the Town of Fort Frances, in trust to the Rainy River District School Board, for $455,000.
“This security is for a number of site services, municipal site services, but as well as for . . . it’s tied to the demolition of the existing school,” Mills explained.
“So what they’re requiring is $455,000 in security to ensure the completion of all the work in this agreement. And if the board does not complete the work, then the town has the right to draw upon this security and use those funds to do the work themselves.”
The town originally had requested a letter of credit be established, but the board opposed this plan because it would have cost as much as $20,000 over the life of the agreement, Mills explained.
Instead, they opted for the GIC, where the board will own any interest generated by it.
While trustees expressed worry over having the money tied up over the period of time, they did vote in favour of the resolution.
“The choice is if we don’t pass it, then we don’t have a site plan agreement, if we don’t have a site plan agreement, then we don’t have a building permit, and if we don’t get a building permit, than we don’t get a school,” board chairman Dan Belluz said.
“So actually, we don’t have a choice.”
Easements on the property also were among the resolutions looked at and passed by the board this morning.
“On our property right now, there are a number of easements and we would like to abandon those and only put on an easement that covers the existing sanitary sewer line that basically cuts the property right in half,” noted Mills, referring to the one resolution passed which called for the abandonment of existing water and sewer easements within the Robert Moore School land while conveying to the town an easement of 30 feet in width for the existing sanitary sewer.
Other easements the board addressed were those concerning the area on Robert Moore School that’s currently used as a public laneway.
As part of the site management plan, the board also has been asked by the town to surface treat the parking lot and its entrance way off of Fourth Street East, Mills said, as well as granting an easement in perpetuity to the Town of Fort Frances over and upon the land.
Pending the approval of an
official plan amendment by the provincial government and following an appeal period, complete approval and go-ahead for the new school could be given as early as July 17.
Also at this morning’s meeting, the school board passed a resolution for the temporary borrowing of $11,497,014 on the Robert Moore capital project to the Royal Bank of Canada to serve as bridge financing until government funding arrives.
Other motions passed at today’s meeting included:
•awarding the banking tender to CIBC for the period of five years commencing on Sept. 1, 2009, with the option of two one-year extensions;
•awarding RFP-SS2009 (for Fort Frances High School security camera upgrade) to Sunset Lock and Security;
•approving the purchase of two trucks for plant department out of surplus funds in 2008/09; and
•approving the architectural contract for the Mine Centre School project to Evans Bertrand Hill Wheeler Architecture Inc.
