Demolition of the high school exchange lands is expected to be completed by September, allowing the municipality to begin development of a new multipurpose green space, set to open the spring of 2017.
Bruce Thompson, municipal director of operations, provided council with a project update during the July 28 committee of the whole meeting, providing an artistic rendering of what the space will look like, as well as explaining what each stage of construction will include.
Mayor Richard Ireland raised concerns about the schedule, noting that in the original land exchange agreement with Grande Yellowhead Public School Division the land was to be handed over to the municipality by Dec. 31, 2015 in a similar condition to the land the division acquired.
“This seems to be extending that by almost two years, a year and a half at least,” said Ireland.
Thompson couldn’t explain why that was, but Christine Nadon, manager of communications, suggested it’s because the municipality has now come up with a concept for what it would like the land to look like and that includes more than just a few trees and some sod.
“The plan of what we’re actually going to do with these exchange lands is in the process of being made more defined, hence why it’s going to take more time. If it had gone to the original standard that Jasper Concrete would have performed it would have been done by Dec. 31, 2015,” she said.
The multipurpose space, as depicted in the artistic rendering presented to council last week, will include a 50 metre by 80 metre open field, elk fencing, a significant number of trees around the site, two picnic tables and a granular path.
In 2011, the municipality and GYPSD completed a land swap, which saw GYPSD acquire the former dog park on the corner of Elm Avenue and Bonhomme Street in exchange for the land where the Jasper Junior/Senior High School used to sit on Pyramid Lake Road.
Since then, GYPSD has built the brand new Jasper Joint School Facility on its land and the former high school has been torn down.
Demolition began in October of 2014 and the project remains in a demolition phase with Jasper Concrete subcontracted to remove any contaminated materials before backfilling, compacting and grading the land.
As well as the demolition, Jasper Concrete was originally supposed to install elk fencing, spread top soil and seed, as well as plant trees. But, the municipality has removed those items from its contract in order to develop the site to its new design.
“So what we’ve done is instead of having Jasper Concrete complete the demolition work to the point where they would put down top soil and seed in accordance with the demolition permit, we want them to get up to grade and then we’re going to be compensated for the work that they would have done,” explained Thompson, noting that currently Parks Canada is reviewing the municipality’s development plans.
“The next steps are to get the development permit process completed by Parks Canada, take those approved drawings and specifications and roll them out to the marketplace on Alberta Purchasing Connection, receive and review tenders, award the contract and then commence with construction.”
Thompson said ideally the municipality will award a contract by September, allowing work to begin as soon as demolition is complete.
From there, the schedule for completion would have contractors working on the site through the 2015 construction season and into early 2016. The remainder of 2016 would then be spent maintaining the turf and preparing it for a spring 2017 opening.
Before moving on to the next agenda item, Ireland suggested that administration take a second look at the original land exchange agreement and at the very least ensure that it’s adjusted to correspond with the new schedule.
“One of the issues of course is liability,” he said. “It’s [GYPSD’s] land until it becomes our land. So if somebody goes for a ride there, some child gets over the fence and onto that land and gets hurt, I would want to know who’s responsible.
“Right now that’s Grande Yellowhead land and it’s intended to be Grande Yellowhead land until it’s all finished and can be returned to us. If we get it in a state of partial remediation then it just changes the outcome.
“I’d just like us to be really clear on some of those issues.”
Nicole Veerman
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