By Cam Lee

Three proposals received for former Hudson Bay elementary school

Dec 12, 2018 | 1:00 PM

The future of the Stewart Hawke Elementary School in Hudson Bay could soon be clearer.

Dec. 10 was the deadline for requests for proposals on the school and surrounding property, and there was quite a bit of interest.

“The town received three expressions of interest relating to the property,” town administrator Richard Doleszar said. “All of them have some merit, some are a better fit for the neighbourhood the school is than others, but basically what happened (at the Dec. 11 council meeting) all three proposals were reviewed, and we’re going to be requesting additional information from all of the proponents.”

A decision on which project is accepted could be made soon.

“I expect that it will be sometime early in the new year before a final decision is made on the future of that school building and property,” Doleszar said.

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As for the content of the potential proposals?

“(I’m) really not at liberty to say at this time, because we received all of the proposals in confidence,” he said.

Stewart Hawke Elementary has been empty since the opening of the new kindergarten to Grade 12 school.

“Once that was opened about three years ago, the school division had a surplus building and property here in the community that for some time we’ve all been for alternative uses,” Doleszar said. “The overall assessment of the building structure is actually exceptionally good – it’s in very good condition and could definitely have some viable use. One of the main issues though (is that) it’s such a large complex that it’s hard for any one project to make use of it all and be responsible for the entire area.”

Doleszar said the North East School Division had previously advertised the building for sale, but there weren’t any acceptible proposals.

“They then approached the community to see if we would accept the building, and we had the structural assessment done and it came back very well,” he said. “I think what really tipped the scale in terms of saving or retaining the building to this point is that as opposed to spending several hundred thousand dollars by the school division to have it demolished, they offered it to the town with a part of those funds coming with it to help us reduce the risk in case we in fact could not find a use and had to demolish it.”

Doleszar said the town decided to give one more public opportunity to find a use for the building.

“We’re trying to determine what’s the most viable for the long-term that could keep that structure or a good portion of it alive and well in the community,” Doleszar said. “We all know that large buildings and infrastructure are hard to obtain, they’re very expensive to put up now, and once you lose something like that it’s never really replaced so we’re making every effort to retain and use the building infrastructure and the site.”

Though the town may decide early next year which proposal to accept, Doleszar said it will take a while to see it come to fruition – if at all.

“It may be well into 2019 because regardless of what proposal is accepted, there will have to be a development agreement reached on the property, and a lot of terms to be worked out so I don’t see it as something that would happen very quickly,” Doleszar said. “There is still at this point a chance that we won’t be able to find a viable use for it and we still have the demolition option but that’s the last resort.”