The town and Rainy River District School Board met for the first time this morning to discuss the fate of old Fort Frances High School on First Street East.
“The board has no money to bring the building down,” Laura Mills, chief financial officer for the board, said yesterday.
Estimates to demolish and remove the old school are roughly $1 million.
Old Fort High was abandoned when the new high school built in the west end of town opened to students in August, 1999.
“There is no immediate rush or concern to do anything with it,” said Mills, adding the reason talks were scheduled was due to concerns raised by the town.
“The town [is] raising safety concerns with the facility,” she noted. “As far as we are aware, there are no issues regarding safety.”
But given both safety concerns and development possibilities—such as a new library or a park/open market foreseen by the “Re-Inventing Fort Frances” committee—have been discussed by council numerous times over the past few years, Mayor Glenn Witherspoon said yesterday there’s an urgency to see something done with the property.
“It’s a true eyesore to the downtown area,” he remarked, though agreeing the prohibitive factor in seeing any decisions about the old building has been the estimated $1 million cost for demolition.
“Anything’s available, but they all carry one thing—a price,” the mayor added. “I’m sure that’s going to be the bottom line on everybody’s agenda.”
“We’re looking at all alternatives [for the building],” said Mills. “We’re looking at some sort of partnership [with the town].”
She said today’s meeting was the first chance the two sides have had to talk about the issue.
“I can’t say what that partnership might be like,” Mills added. “The board would like to sell and dispose of the property.”
“I’m not sure what’s going to happen with this, but something has to be done,” stressed Mayor Witherspoon.
The meeting was still in session as of press time today.
Fort Frances Times
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