Asserts flawed thinking all around

To the Editor:

Your columnist, Brent Fox, has demonstrated the same flawed thinking as your town council when it comes to the possibilities and opportunities presented to Kentville by the restoration of the former Dominion Atlantic Railway roundhouse.

In his June 10 online article "Roundhouse reality tells a bigger tale," Mr Fox suggests: "A quick glance shows there is no money around to save and develop the roundhouse. It would be wonderful if there was - along with ever valuable time - the local money available, provincial funds ready at hand and federal assistance."

Unfortunately, it appears that is all that Mr. Fox and town council have done; taken a quick glance. The Nova Scotia Railway Heritage Society and several other independent and governmental sources have offered council several sources of funding that are currently available, and indicated that Kentville is not expected to shoulder the cost of the restoration without assistance from the corporate sector and community-based groups.

Simply put, and to counter the argument at the June 13 council meeting by councillor Dennis Kehoe, the town doesn’t know if it can afford to restore the roundhouse because it doesn’t know what the cost will be.

Insufficient attention has been paid to the process by which other municipalities assess the condition and potential of heritage properties, including uses for the building, funding sources and partnership possibilities with the private sector.

Council's decision appears to be based upon a single report by the Dartmouth firm of Neill and Gunter, which only suggests it would take $1.5 million to bring the building envelope up to warehouse standards, and that figure comes with a 30 per cent variance either way.

Mr. Fox then parrots another reason provided by town councillors for ridding themselves of the roundhouse: "Like any abandoned structure, the roundhouse couldn't help but be a potential liability case – an expensive one in paid out damages and increased premiums."

This is based upon the supposition that someone is going to be injured by an accident while trespassing on the property. Most municipalities, however, do not pay insurance premiums based on how many potential accidents might occur in any given year and taking down the roundhouse would not, if that was the case, reduce the town's insurance costs because the same liability would apply to someone injured while on the site of the razed building.

Indeed, if the potential for accidents was the sole means of determining insurance costs the town would be spending more money providing for the safety of pedestrians by improving sidewalks and extending those sidewalks in areas where none currently exist.

The final evidence that Mr. Fox has not paid enough attention to his topic is his statement that: "There were past opportunities lost – the Warden railway collection, the caboose and snowplow artifacts, and the DAR station. The last, however, from what I saw, would have fallen down if it hadn't been taken down. The loss was the material inside, some of which was rescued by the late railway historian Leon Barron."

Many of those artifacts were not "lost." Indeed, the caboose and snowplow were saved and exist in the collection of the Musquodoboit Harbour railway museum. A great deal of the material from the former Kentville station was preserved by members of the Nova Scotia Railway Heritage Society, myself included.

Regain some of those treasures

A restored roundhouse incorporating a railway museum would provide an opportunity for the town to regain some of those treasures if the current owners were assured they were exhibited in an appropriate setting.

It would seem others saw the value of that material, whereas it escaped the attention of Kentville's council at the time.

It remains my position that the town can’t afford not to restore the roundhouse. With manufacturing and agricultural industries up and down the Valley facing an uncertain future in the post-North American Free Trade era, Kentville is passing up an opportunity to develop an industry over which it can exert some control; tourism.

All Kentville will do by failing to restore the roundhouse is give visitors to the Annapolis Valley another reason not to get off Highway 101 when going from Grand-Pre to Annapolis Royal.

Councillor Kehoe also suggested at the June 13 meeting that the Cornwallis Inn still remains as a monument to the town's railway heritage, so the loss of the roundhouse will not damage that aspect of the town's allure to tourists.

But this overlooks two important facts. The first is that the town does not own the inn, and does not have a heritage property bylaw to ensure that it remains in a close approximation to its 1930s-era appearance.

The other is that town development has already destroyed much of the once-famous garden that gave the inn its distinctive style. If the owner of the building was to decide tomorrow to make changes to its appearance, or redevelop the land, council cannot prevent it from happening. What then becomes of Kentville's heritage?

The other question that Councillor Kehoe failed to answer June 13 was why would the town want to limit itself to a single building representing its once-proud railway history? Only a variety of buildings can properly represent the individuality of any community.

Both your columnist and council have indicted that time is another overwhelming factor in council's decision. Why?

Efforts to save the roundhouse and incorporate it into the town's revitalization have existed since the 1998 economic development plan was formulated, a 10-year plan that is now being repudiated before its term has expired. Mr. Fox makes no mention of this.

As a former small-town newspaper editor and publisher, it was always my philosophy that the local journal of record should act as a watchdog over the follies of elected representatives. Unfortunately, Mr. Fox appears in this case to have adopted the role of lap dog.

Jay Underwood, President

Nova Scotia Railway Heritage Society

Elmsdale, NS