Fired Wildcat contractor to receive heritage award
Rick Muyres recognized by Yellowknife Heritage Committee for his work in restoration
Candace Thomson
Northern News Services
Published Friday, February 14, 2014
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The contractor fired by the city last year after numerous delays kept the doors of the Wildcat Cafe closed more than a year longer than anticipated is this year's city heritage award recipient.
Rick Muyres, a Norman Wells-based contractor, stands outside the Wildcat Cafe in May 2011. He, along with two other men, took the 74-year-old building apart log-by-log, so a new foundation could be put in and the building could be rebuilt. Muyres has been named as this year's city heritage award recipient. Council approved the recommendation on Monday. - NNSL file photo |
City council approved a recommendation from the Yellowknife Heritage Committee to give the 2013 award to Norman Wells-based contractor Rick Muyres during Monday night's city council meeting.
"(Muyres) has a long history in the North, and a long history on working on heritage projects," Mayor Mark Heyck said on Wednesday.
"In Yellowknife, there are a number of his pieces of work around the city. The work he's done is really amazing and he has a real passion for authentic heritage."
Muyres winters in Guatemala, could not be reached for comment.
His work to restore the city-owned cafe is likely his most recognized contribution to the city, although it became mired in controversy after opening date upon opening date were postponed, while the city waited for Muyres to complete the work.
The Wildcat Cafe was supposed to reopen in May 2012, but was delayed an additional year after several issues arose during renovation, including the discovery of an unstable foundation and asbestos in the walls.
His $525,000 contract to restore the 77-year-old restaurant was terminated by the city last April after it appeared another summer season at the Wildcat was in jeopardy.
Grant White, director of community services, told Yellowknifer last May that the city had terminated the contract in late April due to ongoing delays and its inability to communicate with Muyres while he wintered in Guatemala.
"We were having difficulties getting a hold of him, but it was never a question of the quality of the work Muyres did," said Heyck. "We just had to get it opened for the season."
Councillor Cory Vanthuyne, who criticized the cost of the Wildcat restoration project when it was announced in 2010, agreed on the high quality of Muyres' work.
"There's no effect there and I wouldn't want to have it construed that way," said Vanthuyne. "He's very well-deserving of this award and I'm happy it's being bestowed upon him."
Mike Vaydik, chair of the heritage committee, said the city will hold a ceremony at the Wildcat later this summer after Muyres returns from Guatemala.
"He did his part to restore it, took it apart, rebuilt the structure, numbered every log, replaced
the ones that couldn't be replaced with new timber, and very
painstakingly sized and selected them so that it fit the old spot," Vaydik said.
"He really is a master log builder. At some point in his young life he went off to Dawson Creek, B.C. and took a log-building course but (in his work) he's added his own sort of unique vision or architectural eye for detail."
Vaydik said Muyres also designed the rotary park layout, created benches around the city made of old mining equipment, crafted a large bench made of tree roots across from the RCMP headquarters, which he dedicated to his mother, and did what he could to save relics of Yellowknife's mining history.
"Whether you realize it or not there's little touches of Rick Muyres all over town," Vaydik said.
"He's always got some new ideas, he keeps us on our toes."
