Tilley puts council on alert over teenager’s fall through roof of empty building

By Craig Westcott

Ward 3 councillor Gerard Tilley asked his colleagues on CBS council Tuesday to prepare in case the Town has to issue an order to demolish a longstanding commercial property on the main road in Kelligrews.

Tilly explained he was making the request because of a dangerous incident that happened at the empty building recently.

The building is located at 862 Conception Bay Highway, which is just across the street from Red Bridge Road and sharing a corner with Long Shore Road and, and as Tilley pointed out, is better remembered as a former supermarket.

“I don’t know if everyone (here) is aware or not, but there was an incident there last week where a teenager suffered a very, very serious injury when he fell through the roof of the building,” said the councillor. ” I know people are asking, ‘What the heck is he doing on the roof of the building?’ But kids are kids. At the end of the day this building has been vacated for, gosh, 20 years or more. And the way that building is configured, behind the building you, or anyone here, could actually hop up on the building – it’s only about four feet high on the back. This could have been a bigger tragedy than what actually happened there, so I’m going to ask that our planning and enforcement people reach out to the owner and maybe (provincial) Government Services, and maybe look at the stability of the structure. At the end of the day, if the property owner is not going to use it, or does not have any purpose for it, I recommend that we go in and tear the place down.”

Mayor Darrin Bent thanked Tilley for raising the matter.

No motion was made, or vote taken as to council’s next move concerning the structure.