COLE HARBOUR, NS – There is hardly any indication that a prominent, landmark building once stood near the trail head to the Cole Harbour Heritage Farm.
The Big Red Barn was set on fire and burned to the ground in an act of arson in March of 2011.
“Everyone was devastated with the loss from the fire, done through vandalism,” said Lorelei Nicoll, the councillor for the area.
The barn was known as a community space and is sadly missed by many who live in the Cole Harbour area.
“It’s a landmark,” Nicoll said.”People always said, ‘oh there’s the red barn’, and it made people feel a sense of belonging to it and to their community.”
The barn was part of the nearby Cole Harbour Heritage Park. The Cole Harbour Parks and Trails Association that cares for the site says the former and current provincial governments promised the barn would be rebuilt. Which is something that has never happened.
“The community is still asking us everyday practically, when are you going to rebuild the barn?,” said Holly Woodill, Cole Harbour Parks and Trails Association. “We have no answer for them, that’s the sad part of it.”
“We would love to build the barn, but we just don’t have the money,” Woodill said.
“In the community, there’s always been a long discussion about the need for it to come back,” added Nicoll.
The property the barn once stood on is owned by the Department of Natural Resources.
“They seem to be holding the future of what the community wants, I don’t know where they stand right now,” said Nicoll.
The barn was insured, but the bulk of the money went to demolishing and cleaning up the site. A tender was issued in 2014 to build a new barn with two estimates coming in, pegging the rebuild between $700-$800,000. The tender was cancelled shortly after because government said the “proposals that came back far exceeded the funding that government had set aside for the project”.
The Cole Harbour Parks and Trails Association says they have tried everything they can think of to get funding to rebuild the barn.. They are now so desperate to rebuild, they are looking across Canada and even internationally for help.
“Now we’re going after some corporate funding,” Woodill says. “We’re not just sticking to home base either, not just Nova Scotia, we’re going across Canada. There’s different funds that can be available, and even Bill Gates has a fund.”
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