The Town of Harbour Grace will be using federal government gas tax funds to upgrade several roads around town.

The Public Works committee met with staff earlier this month to discuss which roads should be given the priority, and capital and public works committee chairperson Deputy Mayor Keith Skinner, who said the Town had roughly $144,000 in gas tax money to spend, brought forward the list of roads and associated work for approval during the July 17 public meeting.

Work to be done includes paving and upgrading of Rogers Lane along with water and sewer repairs at a cost of $28,331; repaving of Cathedral Street at a cost of $28,463; leveling of Old Water Street Road with a budget of $11,080; and the resurfacing of Water Street from the Conception Bay Museum to Cathedral Street at a cost of $49,495.

All told, the work will come to $117,369, with $22,631 in gas tax funds left over.

“And in October, there’ll be another $70,000, approximately, coming, so then we can look at other projects to be considered,” added Skinner.

Mayor Don Coombs said the decisions on which roads to attend to are based on road maintenance costs.

Council unanimously approved the work.

The resurfacing of Water Street, noted Skinner, will be later used to leverage more federal funding for the nearby trail system.

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The Town of Carbonear has received no takers for a property it was hoping to sell at 162 Water Street.

Council put the land, which used to house the old Bond Theatre, up for public bidding with a closing date of June 29.

“We didn’t get any bidders, so the committee is recommending that we list the property now with a realtor,” said councillor Chris O’Grady, who chairs council’s finance committee. “So, we’ll be doing that over the next while.”

One of the conditions the Town had placed on the sale was that the successful bidder would have to erect a building on the site, which is all but empty now, within two years.

Chief Administrative Officer Cynthia Davis, acting on a suggestion from Town Clerk Cathy Somers, advised Grady that if council is determined to go the route of listing the property with a realtor, he should make a motion to that effect.

Davis said the Town may also have to seek quotes from different realtors to gauge the cost of their services before selecting one for the job. “But at least we can get a motion and start the process to do the listing,” she suggested.

So, O’Grady did just that. Before he could finish making the motion, however, a phone rang in the chamber. 

“We’ve got a bid already,” O’Grady joked. “That was fast.”

His motion to list the property passed unanimously.

The site, which is located in a Heritage zone, has a lot of history. The theatre opened in April 1949, around the time Newfoundland joined Confederation. Its ownership changed hands and the building was converted to other uses before being destroyed by fire in April 2014. At the time, a sports company, Trophy Hut, was just moving out to make way for an artist’s cooperative that had hoped to use the building for a market. According to a story in The Compass newspaper, a collection of antique furniture was reportedly being stored in the building at the time.

The loss of the building marked the second time a theatre building had burned in Carbonear. Carbonear Cinemas, which had opened in the old Orange Lodge in 1975 and moved to the Bond Theatre building before settling into its final location on Powell Drive, was destroyed by fire in October 2011. The flames were discovered about an hour after moviegoers had left the building after seeing a screening of the film, The Help.

“We are required to obtain fair market value (for the Bond Theatre land) and there has been an appraisal obtained,” Davis noted.

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