The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Mayor Dennis Ballard has responded unfavourably to a request for the City to take possession of some school division property due to liability concerns. At Tuesday's City Council meeting, the mayor reviewed a letter from the Flin Flon School Division asking that the City immediately assume ownership of 30 Adams Street, where the former Ross Lake School was demolished over the summer. "Our concern is that vehicles or toys may end up driving over the embankment, causing injury and potential liability issues to the division," read the letter. If unwilling to take over the property, the division asked that the City "at least consider assisting us in making the property safe." "The logic behind it escapes me," said Mayor Ballard after reviewing the request. See 'Property' P.# Con't from P.# The mayor went on to say that "everybody has liability for their property" and that the school division is no different. "It's their property until such time as that changes," he said. "And my understanding would be that, like everybody else, they carry that liability." Councillor Dave Kennedy worried aloud that assuming ownership of the land would set an undesirable standard. "Certainly, would that not be setting a precedent?" he asked. "Somebody has property they no longer want or consider a liability, that they (would want to) turn it over to us?" "Or ask us to fix it up?" the mayor asked. Councillor Therien said he felt the school division was trying to "pass the headache on to us." The school division's letter was referred to the Committee of the Whole for further review. This past August, a demolition crew tore down the Neil A. McLennan Building, formerly Ross Lake School. Opened in the fall of 1935, the facility was vacated two years ago and had sat empty since. According to the book Flin Flon, a work of the Flin Flon Historical Society, HBMS built the school to serve children in the growing Ross Lake subdivision. The building was discontinued as a school in the 1970s and became home to the Flin Flon School Division administration offices. In 2001, the administration moved to Ruth Betts School, leaving the building empty.
