Former Woods Harbour alley coming down

Concerns about the condition of the building were discussed and a plan of action initiated at the Oct. 10 meeting of Barrington Municipal Council.

The municipality has received letters of con-cern from the Shag Har-bour/Bear Point Fire De-partment and Woods Harbour residents Nor-man and Rosemary Nick-erson, who live beside the vacant bowling alley, which has been torched twice in the past year.

Both expressed concern that the property is un-safe, dangerous, and a fire hazard, especially with Halloween fast ap-proaching.

The municipal bylaw enforcement officer has also inspected the prop-erty, reporting that the building “is in a very dangerous state,� said municipal clerk/treasurer Brian Holland.

While there is an effort afoot by the owners to clean up the property, “I don’t think the munici-pality should take any chances that it’s not done by Halloween,� said Holland.

Council unanimously passed a motion to in-form the property owners that an order to demolish the building would be made at the Oct. 23 council session.

The property owners would have seven days to appeal, and provided they didn’t, the municipality would then be able to demolish the building on Oct. 31.

However, a plan is in the works between the Woods Harbour Fire De-partment and the prop-erty owners to do a con-trolled burn of the build-ing when weather condi-tions permit.

They will have until Oct. 30 to take care of the situation before the municipality steps in. If the municipality has to demolish the building the property owners will be billed for the expense.