Designation of Athabasca’s ‘Old Brick School’ as a provincial historic resource is an honour some local officials don’t necessarily want bestowed.
“Consideration of (the) request for historical designation for the brick school should be one of careful process, with full evaluation of possibilities and options,” Athabasca Mayor Roger Morrill said. “Consultation between the Town of Athabasca and Athabasca County, who are the co-owners of the school, will be forthcoming.”
“At this moment, we are still waiting for the owner’s response,” confirmed Gary Chan from Alberta Provincial Historical Resources.
“I did hear that they might want to reject it.”
The concern of Morrill and other members of the Athabasca Regional Multiplex Society — which manages the brick school — is that provincial designation could complicate repairs and upkeep of the building.
“Historically acceptable renovations can become expensive,” Morrill said, referencing cost estimates for replacing windows in the brick school that became significantly more expensive to meet historic criteria. “Unfortunately that is only windows, and extensive renovation of the brick school to historical standards in its entirety will be costly, to say the least.”
Grants are available to buildings with provincial designation, but they are not guaranteed and are offered on a matching basis.
At the last meeting of the Athabasca Regional Multiplex Society earlier this month, they decided to indefinitely postpone a decision on provincial designation for the old brick school building
“The current thoughts of the Multiplex Society are that historical designation be placed on hold for now,” Morrill said.
But town councillor Colleen Powell, who is also president of the Athabasca Heritage Society, said it would be a mistake to not designate the building as a provincial historical building, and said Multiplex Society members may not fully understand the pros and cons of designation.
“They had it in their heads, and I’m not allowed to say who they are, that if you got provincial designation, they would be handicapped (on what they could do) on the inside of the building,” Powell said. “There are some restrictions, I can’t deny that, but they are not onerous.
“The provincial designation has access of funding of up to $100,000 in matching grants every year,” she explained. “Those grants are primarily used for historical restoration, but part of that program will allow you to modernize the building.”
Powell said the province wants historical buildings to be used, not just admired.
“If you restore a 1912 building to 1912, you aren’t going to be able to use the damn thing,” she said. “The people on the Multiplex board never, as far as I know, asked Alberta Historical what the program was about.”
Chan said the province has a strong interest in preserving the brick school.
“The building is really significant, and we want to protect the building,” Chan said. “There are several cases where the ministry will go ahead and designate the building against the owner’s will, but usually they would like to get consent from the owner.”
A meeting between the town and county regarding historical designation of the brick school has yet to be scheduled.
However, a letter addressed to the Athabasca Regional Multiplex from county manager Gary Buchanan, suggests that the town take full ownership of the brick school before going ahead with the designation.
“The building is owned by the Multiplex Society, itself a partnership between the Town of Athabasca and Athabasca County,” the letter reads. “The preservation of historic resources is an important public objective supported by the County. However the preservation of the old brick school is much more specific to the Town of Athabasca.”
