Downtown Rubble fields stand tall ... owing to lack of a city service call

Rose's and the Angus Apartments demolition will have to wait
until CityWorks crews have time to disconnect their services 

The City of Prince Rupert still has plans to demolish the two still standing remains of past fire incidents in the downtown core, it's just finding time to send a city crew to turn off the services to each that is holding up the demolition plans.

As we outlined yesterday, both the Rose's structure and the Angus Apartments have yet to see any demolition work commence, despite the long running plan for such, which first gained some traction forward in the summer.

Last night, the topic came up for review at the end of the City Council Session, that as Councillor Cunningham asked for an update from the City Manager Robert Buchan. 

"We had a conversation in September about when Rosie's was going to be torn down and I was informed at that time that it was going to be gone by the end of October. 

And it's still sitting there like a big symbol of ... lack of action.

So I'm just wondering what's happening with it and the Angus Apartments right now"

In reply the City Manager  noted that the ability to disconnect the two buildings from the water system has been impeded by the current water situation, observing of the issues that the city is facing on water infrastructure.  

"Very Good Question and yes that was our goal. 

However, the folks that need to disconnect the services that are hooked up to the building have not been able to get to it because of other pressing water system matters. 

And that is the reality of what we're dealing with right now, our staff get pulled off to deal with issues.

And I can say, even this weekend, staff were having to go and manually look after a number of components ... to make sure we have a system that's working."

He noted once the city crews have enough time to disconnect the buildings in question the work will commence. Adding that it's a priority, though not as as urgent a priority as some other things. 

"It's ready to go, we just simply need to get enough time for our city works crew to get down there and do the disconnect. It's a priority, it's not as urgent a priority as some other things"

There was no timeline noted towards when the city may be able to address the demolition work.

The full discussion from Council can be reviewed from the video archive starting at the 59 minute mark.

More notes from Monday's Council Session can be reviewed through our Council Timeline Feature.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review.