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Campbell River School District to pull the plug on Evergreen

After years of sitting empty with little to no interest from business, building will be torn down
web1_SD72-Evergreen
Mike Davies/Campbell River Mirror After over a decade standing empty and boarded up, with little to no interest in its use from the business community, the former Evergreen Elementary buiding is going to be put out of its misery instead of continuing to wait for a tenant.

After years of sitting empty, slowly crumbling into the landscape, the building that used to house Evergreen Elementary will finally be put out of its misery.

The district has been holding onto the property since the school’s closure over a decade ago, performing the necessary basic maintenance and upkeep required to keep it standing in hopes that someone would want to lease it. Little to no interest has surfaced over the years, however, so a decision was made at this week’s public meeting of the Board of Education signalling the beginning of the end, when trustees voted in favour of a motion to remove the hazardous materials from the building, rendering it unusable. The board had previously asked for estimates on what it would cost to demolish the building. An amount was approved to be spent on the demolition based on that estimate, pending finding someone to perform the demolition for that amount. Those numbers were discussed in camera and as such are not available. A request for proposals (RFP) was issued, but all proposals came in well over the approved budget.

“All the proposals came in well over $100,000 more than what the initial estimate was,” Secretary-Treasurer Kevin Patrick told the board at this week’s public meeting , though he admitted there weren’t very many bids on the project. The consultant working with the district on the bid procurement recommended that they not proceed with approving one of those bids and instead look at removing the hazardous materials from the site, which could open up subsequent demolition bids to more companies who may prefernot to deal with those materials.

The planning and removal of that hazardous material will cost the district up to $70,000, but the hope is that it will significantly lower the cost to perform the rest of the demolition down the road. The subsequent RFP issued – once the hazardous material has been removed – is expected to attract more bidders and therefore be more competitive.

“It still may not be as low as what we had initially hoped,” Patrick told the board, “but it will definitely help us get a good value.”

Trustee Ted Foster asked Patrick to confirm that the removal of the hazardous material would prevent the building from ever being able to be used again.

Patrick responded that was correct. The decision to remove the hazardous material would mean the building would eventually be completely demolished rather than continuing to wait for a prospective tenant. The board could decide to do repairs on the building instead of beginning the demolition process, but it would be costly and would not guarantee anyone would ever want to move in.

“At this point, the building is not in very good shape, but it could, potentially, have some repairs made that could allow a tenant,” Patrick said. “At the last assessment we had done, about five years ago, it recommended roof replacement in the amount of $165,000 at the time. At this point, just a section of the roof would be about $250,000.”

“The board has been around the mulberry bush on Evergreen for years,” said Trustee Richard Franklin, “and personally, I don’t think it would be responsible or reasonable to turn this into a rental, because the investment would be far too high. This building, right now, costs us money and we get absolutely nothing out of it. And if we were to sell it, the money would all go to the provincial government and we would get nothing out of that, either, pretty much. As far as I’m concerned, we should proceed with the remediation of the hazardous materials when our dump is able to accept those materials.”

That could be as early as this fall, according to the Comox Strathcona Waste Management Service.

“There’s been quite a debate about this property for many years,” said Trustee Darryl Hagen, “and I think it is time to move on. We could have repaired it years ago, but no good options came out of it. It will become more and more of a liability as the years go by, so it’s time to let it go.”

Trustee John Kerr pointed out that it’s not like the Evergreen Road property is the only property the district owns that could be leased, should someone approach them with a need.

“If someone really needs a place to be that’s approximately that size and it’s not crucial that it’s on the end of Evergreen Road, we have one up on Pengelley and one down on Terrain.”

Those properties are, of course, the recently closed Oyster River and Discovery Passage Elementary schools.

The motion to begin the removal of the hazardous materials from the old Evergreen Elementary was approved unanimously.