Put up a parking lot Rural Ramblings

During its meeting on Nov. 6 Edson Town Council awarded the demolition contract for the Edson Rec Complex to Visco Demolition Contractors Ltd. for a budget of $400,000.

A building that was originally thought to be worth $2 - $3 million dollars is now a $400,000 cost. I have to say that I think this whole process has been a sorry state of affairs since the get go. Failed sale, failed request for proposals (RFP) for sale because of possibly exposing who knows how many people to asbestos that was only flagged by an Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) inspection, failed to get the County onboard to help pay for demolition and I think too a colossal failure to be transparent, even to the county, when more information was requested with the Town opting for demolition instead. Why?

The funds for the demolition are to come from the Yellowhead County – Town of Edson Revenue Sharing Agreement, which is kind of ironic since the County refused to pay for any of it. I am willing to bet that the County or its taxpayers will be less than happy with that. I’ve seen the pictures included with the Town of Edson RFP for demolition. If they truly represented the building prior to or at the OHS involvement, then I can’t imagine how any maintenance regime could have missed the issues. Again, why?

We’ve already seen with the recent Brett Kissel gig that Edson can fill a venue for a major act. Sure, the Rec Complex building has problems, the roof, the elevator, the ice machinery, asbestos and doubtless more but has the public been privy to a report breaking down the numbers for a fix up? I haven’t seen one. What would have been wrong with an “as is, where is” sale subject to use conditions?

So, what next? The contract with the demolition contractor stipulated completion by the end of March 2019, I’m guessing that it will be sooner that that. Then there will be a piece of development land/ parking lot. I’m assuming, of course, that this piece of land could be, will be, sold by the Town at market value to recoup some or all of the cost of demolition?