Council has praise for City Staff following Angus Apartments demolition

The Rubble of the former Angus Apartments made for
a conversation topic for Monday's council session

The recent demolition of the Angus Apartments made for some kudos for staff from a pair of Prince Rupert City Council members at Monday's Council Session.

The long and challenging path for the City towards the eventual tear down of the fire damaged structure made for some comments at the tail end of the Monday session, with Councillor Terry Forster the first to offer her praise for the work of city staff on the issue.

"I did want to actually thank staff  ... the Angus Apartments that have come down. 

That is, that was a really great thing to see. 

I recognize that for many people in our community it  was a long time coming. But I wanted to pass on, I've heard from a lot of people in the community gratitude that while it took a while,  it's done.

And to look forward to more work from our City Staff on getting more derelict buildings taken down"

Councillor Wade Niesh also picked up on the demolition topic, observing of the issues that staff faced with the former landlord before effecting the tear down

"I guess I'll chime in on the Angus Apartments, I'm glad to see that some of this stuff is coming down too.  

You know a lot of people say that it took a long time and it sure did, and I want people to understand that was not because of staff, that was because of a landlord that chose to drag his feet on many things.

Even before that place burnt, he was known as one of the worst landlords in provincial history, tenancy board actions against him.

So you know, we've been trying for years even before it burnt to try and deal with that building and it was definitely one of the worst ones.

And finally, you know,  he left us the pleasure of gifting us a burnt building, that we ended up getting on the tax sale.  So we get to deal with it now and  that's the type of people that we have to deal with sometimes.

It's great to see it down finally and I'm sure you're going to see lots more of this in the future. 

In the next couple of months there's going to be a lot more houses and buildings and we're kind of, its time to start, now that we can dedicate a little bit of resources to it,  although were stretched on other things like infrastructure. At least now we're starting to crack down on making it not acceptable to have plywood on your windows and other things in our community ...

It's actually kind of nice driving down Third Avenue now, it's looking a little bit better, we've still got a long way to go but it is getting better and I appreciate what the staff has done to facilitate that"

City Manager Rob Buchan, who was participating in the meeting remotely from elsewhere, likely was relieved that the Councillor had wrapped up his dissertation on terrible landlords when he did; lest the City have to contact their legal team over any potential defence over concerning statements coming out of the Council session.

You can review both comments from the Council members through the City's Video archive, Ms. Forster at the one hour 20 minute mark, Mr. Niesh at one hour twenty three minutes.

A look back at some of the key moments of the Angus Apartment timeline can be reviewed below:

March 2024 -- Down comes the Anus ... as City's remediation program moves along 
January 2024 -- Cost concerns, notes on timeline for Angus Apartments demolition process observed at Council Monday night 

December 2023 -- Council has praise for Rose's Clean up; anticipation for same for Angus Apartments 

November 2023  -- Buildings that Don't come Down ... as Third West, Second West nuisances remain standing 

October 2023 -- Work towards removal of Rose's, Angus Apartments on the horizon 
October 2023 -- Still Standing... little progress to see from Remediation orders for two fire ravaged structures in Prince Rupert 
August 2023 -- City Council's Twin Remedial Action orders for Roses' structure and the Anus Apartments to move forward
March 2022 -- Prince Rupert's Bylaw enforcement blues 
February 2022 -- February 11th next date of note towards action on any Angus Apartment clean up
February 2022 -- A 2021 Court case loss, just one note among list of woe from Angus Apartments 
December 2021 -- Angus Apartment residents now seeking new homes as building declared uninhabitable
December 2021 -- Prince Rupert Fire/Rescue, RCMP on scene of apartment fire near Five Corners  

More notes from the Monday Council Session can be reviewed from our Council Timeline.

Other themes for discussion at Prince Rupert City Council can be explored through our archive page.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review.