Enterprise wants old weigh scale building
Property may become site of museum
Paul Bickford
Northern News Services
Published Monday, July 21, 2014
ENTERPRISE
The Hamlet of Enterprise is seeking to assume ownership of an old weigh scale building and property, which occupies a prominent site along Highway 1 in the community.
Council unanimously passed a motion on July 7 to apply to get the property transferred from the GNWT to the hamlet.
John McKee, the hamlet's interim senior administrative officer (SAO), told council that the old weigh scale building is currently an asset of the Department of Public Works and Services.
"What will have to happen is, if the hamlet wants, they have to express an interest," he explained prior to the vote on the motion.
McKee said the property could be transferred for a nominal fee - $1 - and the hamlet would afterwards have to pay for operation and maintenance.
A turnover would just be a matter of doing the paperwork, he added.
Brian Nagel, the director of infrastructure operations and accommodation services with public works, confirmed that the building and 111-by-250-metres of land is headed to the hamlet.
"We are definitely in the process of transferring that asset to them," he said.
The old weigh scale closed in 1998 and a newer facility opened in 1999 not far away in Enterprise.
The Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment (ITI) took over the old building from the Department of Transportation in 1999. ITI declared it a surplus building in 2007, and it was turned over to public works.
The hamlet started using it shortly after and paid the utilities on it, said Nagel.
"Public Works and Services has never used it," he said.
In the past, the hamlet used the building for a number of purposes, including a visitor information centre, a Moms & Tots program, a library and an exercise room. It also for a time paid for the operation and maintenance.
A community government, such as the Hamlet of Enterprise, is next in line for such a surplus building behind NWT public corporations.
Public Works has recently remediated the building to remove any hazardous material.
Coun. John Leskiw III supported obtaining the property.
"It is a good location in town and it would, I think, be in our best interests to buy it," he said.
McKee noted that, while the hamlet would pay the operation and maintenance costs, it could possibly obtain program funding for running an activity in the building.
Coun. Jim Dives said that might involve something like a museum, as suggested by the Enterprise Senior Society.
