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Declaration of a state of emergency for Saltair Community Centre roof a farce

Newly-purposed earthquake-proof building would have made more sense and saved dollars
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The release of monetary funds for pouring into the leaking roof of the Saltair Community Centre, formerly the Mt. Brenton School, reminds me of the Chicken Little story where it was falsely claimed that there was an emergency because the sky was falling. In the Saltair Community Centre, the big panic and emergency is a section of the roof leaking.

Who had the authority to claim the whole roof replacement is an immediate emergency? It certainly was not confirmed by WorkSafeBC or McCuaig Engineering. It seems to me to be a very good ploy, however, to get circulating ‘rumour has it’ that there is an emergency; the roof is leaking and needs to be immediately replaced.

By getting as much money spent on the school now in a rush, before the elections, would make it hard to make a case for a newly-elected person to call a referendum for considering a new properly purposed earthquake safe building as a community centre alternative. That money of course, spent on the old school, would just be the tip of the iceberg for the amount that will be required for constant improvements and updates.

Having the old school as a community centre in the long run is going to cost as much or more then a brand new purposed building and it will still be very old and outdated. Why does a very small Saltair percentage of people along with the majority of CVRD directors have trouble realizing that? Over 600 Saltair residents that have signed a petition to have a referendum for their input on the subject of the community centre have been fundamentally ignored.

The fox, in the Chicken Little original story, was able to use the sky falling rumour to influence all the animals to come to his den and it was not a good ending for whoever entered. I think we have a similar story here for most of the ‘powers that be’ people. It seems they have been out foxed; the asbestos wool pulled over their eyes, they have let their guard down and been hoodwinked by not giving much thought to approve spending money, not just for the one leak in the roof, but to replace the whole roof that the clever fox has presented to them.

When it comes down to it, the money approved to be allocated to the winner in the bidding process for replacing the roof is Top Line Roofing that had the lowest bid of $154,649. What really is astounding is that the CVRD is not comfortable with that accepted bid amount and has approved an amount up to $300,000 which shows even they don’t believe it can be done for that low bid.

The one leak in the roof that is now being addressed in the ILM office, including a required asbestos abatement procedure, will suffice until the next Saltair elections and a referendum can take place to determine if Saltair taxpayers would prefer a new community centre.

For now, what seems to make a lot of sense, would be to keep the old school going and if a referendum determines that Saltair residents prefers a new building without renewal/restoration/repair, padlock the old school building and move into the new community centre after it is built.

Bob Ennis

Saltair