Duane Hicks
The town will not go ahead with a proposal to use Huffman School as a second location for the Sister Kennedy Centre.
All four of the town’s executive committees reviewed a proposal from the Fort Frances Seniors Advisory Committee, which asked council not to demolish Huffman and turn the property into housing lots, and the consensus was that council not endorse the request.
“The common recommendation from all four committees was that the town was unable to commit to an undertaking of this nature from a financial perspective and that the proposal was an escalation in service that could, in most respects, be facilitated within existing facilities,” read a report from Fort Frances CAO Mark McCaig, which council approved at Monday night’s meeting.
Points raised by the four committees include:
•the town does not have the financial resources to renovate the former school building at an estimated cost of $500,000, nor cover the future operational costs of the facility (i.e., heating, lighting, water, grounds maintenance, insurance, etc.) at an estimated cost of $200,000 a year;
•the building is in a derelict state and has been stripped of many materials;
•the proposed use would qualify as a “change of use” under the Building Code, thus requiring significant work and cost to make it fit for occupancy.
•the water service has been shut down, the water meter removed, and the boilers and hot water tank disconnected and drained (there is a high likelihood that pipes did not fully drain and froze/broke over the winter);
•windows have been broken and washroom partitions removed;
•in a year when council has had to cut services and staffing due to a lack of funding, it is not reasonable to expand services;
•the proposed use of the property would require it to be re-zoned again (about six months after the town first acquired the property in September, 2010, the process of exploring potential uses began, which included a public call for expressions of interest); and
•the ideas for new services at Sister Kennedy Centre could be offered at the existing centre in the vacant times that currently exist on the schedule (other town facilities, like the Memorial Sports Centre and East End Hall, could serve as auxiliary locations).
At Monday’s council meeting, Fort Frances Seniors Advisory Committee spokesperson Allan T. Bedard said the information regarding the state of the building and the cost to renovate it was news to him.
“If you had information beforehand, supportive information, why didn’t you bring it forward?” he asked council.
Bedard said the proposal was developed over many months and brought through the Sister Kennedy board of management.
Although the committee was aware the town had intentions to turn the property into a subdivision, not once was it provided any information or able to go and look at the building.
Bedard added the committee was led to believe the vacant school was in good shape, and that the reason it was shut down was a lack of students to attend there.
