Bay Roberts approves demolition of Lions Club

By Mark Squibb/March 31, 2023

The remains of the old Shearstown Lion’s Club, which was gutted by a fire this past Christmas Eve, will be junked and the property backfilled, following a motion of council during a public meeting earlier this month.

An order to remove or repair the building was laminated and stapled to what was left of the building’s front porch in early February.

As no one stepped forward to claim ownership or responsibility of the building, that order was ignored, and during a public meeting held February 14, council approved a motion to hire the lowest qualified bidder to clean up the site.

The most competitive bid, as noted by Town CAO Nigel Black, was a submission from Riverside Excavating that came in at $5,680, plus HST.

Individual bids were not read aloud during the meeting, but councillor Frank Deering noted there was a big pricing difference between the highest and lowest bidders. Due to the price differences, Deering wondered whether each company bidding on the job would be disposing of the waste in the same manner.

Black said each company would have been required to dispose of the waste at Robin Hood Bay, and hand over a receipt as proof. He said he couldn’t explain why the prices were “all over the map.”

The question of who would foot the bill for demolition and when council will recoup monies spent on demolition was raised during a meeting on January 24, a month following the fire. During that meeting, Black had said the cost would be charged to a tax account associated with that property. As the building was used for volunteer purposes, it previously did not have a tax account, so a new one will be made specifically to account for the cost of demolition.