No buyers: River John school to be demolished

River John School will be demolished.

The former elementary school that closed in 2015 has been vacant since June after the lease with the River John Action Society expired and the county opted to see if the building would sell.

County staff announced Monday during its property services meeting that it only received interest from one person in the building and once all of the inspection information was provided there hasn’t been any other response.

Staff recommended that due to the lack of interest the building will be demolished.

“I guess I can understand that this really has to happen but it is a sad day when we have to take a school down,” said Coun. Ron Baillie who represents the area.

The county spent $50,000 in 2014-2015 to cover the cost of heat, lights and snow clearing and an additional $35,000 as of April 2017.

The land the building sits on was donated to the municipality two decades ago by the MacGregor family for the purpose of building a school and will continue to be the property of the municipality.

The River Action Society has been given permission to have the contents of the building and Pictou County 4-H recently made use of cupboards, fridges, stoves, deep freezers and sinks for its new building at the exhibition grounds.

The demolition is expected to cost the county about $500,000 and has been included in the 2017-2018 budget. Hazardous materials need to be identified before tenders can go out for demolition so council is not expecting the building to come down until after the December council meeting when the tenders are expected to be reviewed.

Baillie also asked that it be fumigated so that the village does have a rat problem afterwards. After the demolition some site restoration work will take place in the spring.