Owner putting up fence to secure problem building from vandals.
Oct 31,
2008
The Journal Pioneer
SUMMERSIDE - A six-foot steel
barbed-wire fence will soon surround a vacant building that has
been targeted by vandals and some fear poses a safety concern.
“We’re tired of the kids breaking into the property,” Tim Banks
says. “We haven’t run into this in other communities where we
have buildings that are empty. We are as concerned about the
security of the building as our neighbours are.”
Tim Banks owns the abandoned Centennial Pool/ Holland College
complex at Granville Street and Ryan Street. Vandals have
spray-painted it, set fires inside, smashed windows and damaged
security systems.
Work is set to begin next week. “We don’t want it to look
like a prison or anything like that, so the fence is going to be
closer to the building, as opposed to taking it out to the road.
It’s going to be set back 20 to 25 feet from the building,”
explained Banks. “We’re still going to maintain the grass and
the landscaping outside of the fence.”
He wouldn’t say if a video surveillance system will be in place
but warned all trespassers will be charged. “No matter how
many times we’ve boarded it up they’ve come along with crowbars
and pulled it off, got inside the building. You just can’t
monitor them once they’re inside the building. We had an
electrical alarm system there in the building but it just
continually got ripped apart,” added Banks. “Simply, we are not
going to put up with it.”
The fence will only be in place until work on the site, expected
to begin in the spring, is complete. There is asbestos in the
roof system but Banks says it poses no risk. “We may leave
the roof system there and just knock all the walls and the
partitions,” he added. “It’s not a loose asbestos, so there’s no
harm in it being there.”
Plans are still in place to construct housing units at the rear
of the property and APM is looking for a tenant for the existing
structure.
Banks said a retailer was lined up to move in but, with current
economic conditions, is taking a “wait-and-see” approach.
