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Property owner working to address building concerns

Nov 8, 2017 | 4:00 PM

Last month the old CB building on Central Ave. was threatened with demolition by Mayor Greg Dionne.

Following the calls to knock the building down, the property manager Vern Temple said he was going to be addressing concerns the city raised about the state of 925 Central Ave. Previously, Temple said demolishing the building isn’t an option, and he’s recently been putting in the work to avoid that route.

“I don’t think we had to do nearly the amount [of work] that we did,” Temple said.

Temple and Brian Leblanc are working on giving the building a facelift in the three weeks since the Mayor decried the building’s condition. Walls were painted and patched; portions of the flooring which was deteriorating were reworked and doors which posed safety issues were repaired.

Temple said the Prince Albert Fire Department went through the building to check the smoke alarms and state of the interior and exterior doors. The next set of crews to come check conditions in the building will be bylaw and building inspectors, who will be visiting next week to check hallways, walls and flooring.

“In the last 25 years we’ve been reaching out to street people,” Temple said. “It appears now there’s a large increase of gangs in the province and in the city. That’s an area that needs to be addressed from the church’s perspective.”

Temple said Leblanc, who has certificates and training to work with people involved in gangs and the street life, is working to address the gang issue.

Leblanc said overall, the crime related issues have slowed down around 925 Central in the last few weeks.

“I talked to the police chief and some of the [councillors], and they said the meter to gauge if things are working down here, progressing, is going to be the amount of police calls,” Leblanc said.  “We’ve talked with the community outreach officer who’s going to provide us some of those numbers.”

 

 

– With files from Glenn Hicks

Bryan.Eneas@jpbg.ca

On twitter: @BryanEneas