The City of Williams Lake has directed staff to begin the tendering process for the demolition of the Slumber Lodge despite the owner arguing that the building as it stands is causing no harm and pleading for one more chance during Tuesday night’s regular City Council meeting.
Mayor Walt Cobb says it’s a story the City has heard for five years now and that the building is an unsightly premise as far as he is concerned.
“It’s a mess and it needs to be cleaned up. We’ve continually asked, he’s continually promised, and nothing has happened so we’ve gone to the next step. If you remember last fall when he put in the application for the rezoning to build the apartment block nothing has happened with that.”
Cobb says nothing has happened also with the building that is fenced off, and that’s time that the owner lives up to his commitments.
He says the tendering process will take up to 30 days, and that the contract for demolition and removal may not go through if the owners show within that time frame that they are truly interested in doing something with it.
A report from the City’s Senior Bylaw Officer indicates that since a fire on March 27, 2016 there have been 8 RCMP calls for service to the building which include: mischief, causing disturbance, suspicious person/vehicle and insecure premises with the latest incident being a breach at the back of the buildings last week.
The recommendation was unanimously approved by Cobb and Councillors Jason Ryll, Laurie Walters, Sue Zacharias, and Ivan Bonnell. Councillor Craig Smith was absent from the meeting while Councillor Scott Nelson excused himself by declaring a conflict of interest.
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