By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON April 18, 2012 Ahem – this gets a little embarrassing. Our Burlington is a great fan of one of the city’s best general managers – Scott Stewart. He is direct, forceful at times and he lays out all the information he has in a way that makes everything clear. He’s a little impatient at times but that is usually because he just wants to get the job done
Stewart spends a lot of his time in meetings – a lot of his time. When he attends Waterfront Access Advisory meetings he is often in “eye ball” rolling mode – but he perseveres and hopes that at some point they will get their act together.
At that Advisory Committee`s last meeting mention was made by Les Armstrong, a committee member, that an inquiry had been made to the Historical Society about some background information on the Pump House out along the Beachway that was getting special attention from the committee. The building has been vacant for more than a decade and while still in good shape it did need some repair work.
The building served as the water pumping station and was then used as a residence for a number of years. In this view one can see the railway tracks running outside the building. The tracks are gone and is now a walking path. Will the Pump House become a coffee shop or a pub?
Stewart made a mental note of inquiry to the Historical Society and in his usual manner followed up. Well much to his surprise the inquiry was the result of some work Stewart’s people were doing on repairing the roof of the Pump House, replacing fascia and down spouts. The building is a historical site and city staff needed permission to make any changes even though the city owns the property.
This was one of those rare occasions when Stewart was not fully on top of his team. The upside to this little technical glitch is that the building the Waterfront Advisory people would like to see turned into a coffee shop or perhaps even a pub will be in much better shape for anyone who chooses to respond to the Request for an Expression of Interest on developing the building into a place that will draw traffic to the area.
Councillor Craven will be bringing a Staff Direction to a Council committee asking that a Request for Expressions of Interest be put out to determine if there is any commercial interest in putting the building to good use.
Whatever gets done will be historically correct and if done well the city will have put some of its heritage to good use.
