Town assumes control of townhouses
Protective Services Department now looking after derelict units
Shawn Giilck
Northern News Services
Published Thursday, October 9, 2014
INUVIK
A longtime public eyesore is now under municipal control.
The Town of Inuvik has officially taken ownership of the derelict townhouses near the Blueberry Patch on Kugmallit Road as of Sept. 30. Here, Inuvik Fire Chief Jim Sawkins posts an eviction and closure notice on one of the townhouses back in August 2013. - NNSL file photo
|
As of Sept. 30, the townhouses located near the Blueberry Patch on Kugmallit Road have been placed in the hands of the town and its Protective Services Department.
That news was announced by Jim Sawkins, the head of the department and Inuvik's Fire Chief, at a committee of the whole meeting on Oct. 6.
In response to a question from Coun. Derek Lindsay, Sawkins said the numbered company which owns the buildings, represented locally by Talal al-Khatib, missed a deadline to file a plan to renovate or rehabilitate the buildings on the site, which have been largely empty for more than a year following orders from the NWT Fire Marshal's Office.
They've been the site of numerous fires, including two last month on Sept. 23 and 28.
Sawkins said one of those fires was deliberately set, while the other was due to electrical issues.
The announcement that the town has taken control of the property set off a round of lively discussion with the council.
In response to a question from Coun. Alana Mero, Sawkins said the ownership of the property is still in the hands of the corporation al-Khatib represents, but it will no longer make any decisions about its future.
Mero said she was concerned about the liability facing the town if it assumed ownership of the buildings, considering the state they're in.
She also asked who would pay for demolishing the buildings after Sawkins indicated that's the best solution to the problem.
Sawkins said the town would likely have to pay for the work, as it did with Alforno's Restaurant earlier this year, which is also under the same ownership.
"So we'd be doing (the company) a favour then," a clearly irritated Mero asked Sawkins.
He told Mero the cost of the work would be added to the taxes for the property, which the corporation would have to pay at some point.
In a followup interview, Sawkins said he wasn't sure how much the demolition would cost, but he guessed it could be more than $1 million. An asbestos study would have to be carried out before the buildings would be taken down.
The town would also have to explore where that money could come from, Sawkins said.
He suggested the town adopt a five-year plan to handle the clean-up at the site, since he doubted the buildings would last longer than that, considering the history of fires there.
The town will be responsible for securing the site, and that could include fencing it off if the council decides to go that route.
In the meantime, the buildings will be secured as well as possible to prevent anyone from getting into the units, Sawkins said.
Plywood will be placed over the doors and windows and screwed closed, and most of the stairways have been taken away.
