Duane Hicks
Town council is moving ahead with plans to demolish the former Huffman School this year and open up the property for residential development.
Speaking at Monday night’s regular council meeting, Fort Frances CAO Mark McCaig noted the town recently has been addressing two of its strategic plan items: finding properties for residential development and determining a future use for the Huffman School property.
The town bought the property in November, 2010 from the Rainy River District School Board for $158,325.74, with the intention to utilize the site for residential development that may or may not have involved demolition of the vacant school.
Since then, the town has reviewed all options related to the property through its various executive committees, the local Economic Development Advisory Committee, and council as a whole.
Last month, council directed administration to look into demolishing the school and, after getting a report back Monday, formally endorsed that the demolition proceed.
“By developing that piece of property there, it’s the most cost-effective means of us getting lots in a subdivision basis, where we have a number of lots in one area,” Mayor Roy Avis said in an interview yesterday.
“Council made a decision that the best way would be to demolish the school.
“We can put four lots on Williams [Avenue] and then we can put another four lots on Fifth [Street East] before we have to proceed with any major infrastructure work for sewer and water,” he explained.
“It makes logical sense that we should proceed in that manner because we’ve only had two housing starts in Fort Frances last year, and people are looking for lots,” Mayor Avis added.
“They’re looking for fairly large lots.
“In the older part of town, there’s a lot of areas that only have 33-foot lots and people want larger lots,” he reiterated.
“So council, in their strategic planning session this year, thought we should move ahead and create a subdivision that would accommodate the people that want to build new homes.”
Demolition will proceed in the most cost-effective manner possible, said McCaig.
Chief Building Official Rick Hallam has been inspecting the school and consulting with various parties regarding its demolition, including the town’s Operations and Facilities staff, in an attempt to use town labour where possible to minimize costs.
McCaig said town staff will extract recoverable items from the school, such as toilet stalls, towel dispensers, and fire extinguishers, and use them elsewhere.
The town’s electrical contractor will remove all lights and thermostatic controls that contain mercury while the Fort Frances Power Corp. will reclaim a padmount transformer for future use.
After consulting with the Ministry of Labour, the town has determined its staff also will remove asbestos floor tiles from the building.
The town will tender an outside firm to demolish the building this year, but may use town staff to haul away the debris.
Town staff then will fill the hole left by the demolition with granular materials that have been stockpiled on the school property since this past summer.
McCaig said the end result will see the town able to develop housing lots along Williams Avenue for a much lower price than what it usually pays for a subdivision development.
He added this is “obviously going to be a win-win” in that the town will be able to provide building lots as well as recoup some of its money.
