REGINA – The shed at 10 Manor Rd. is an eyesore for its neighbours, though looks are the least of their worries.
“Parties and the graffiti,” said Bonnie Skinner, listing the problems she’s observed over the nearly 40 years she’s lived beside the shed.
“There’s discussion and rumours that maybe somebody is living inside the building,” said Terry Bachinski, another neighbour.
The shed was built in the 1960s to store landscaping equipment. It hasn’t been used in years but has been a headache for locals ever since. Several neighbours say that they’ve contacted the city about the shed multiple times over the years.
In February, Bachinski submitted a neighbourhood petition to the city’s facilities department asking for the shed to be removed. “And they said that they would look at that, and pass that forward, and, hopefully, that would help encourage whoever manages the budgets to actually do something with the building,” said Bachinski.
Ward 1 Councillor Barbara Young said that she never saw the neighbourhood petition but did visit the shed last spring after a neighbour called her about the it. When she spoke with employees at the city’s facilities department afterwards, they said they were putting out a contract to demolish the shed.
SaskTenders shows that a $30,450 contract was awarded to A & R Bobcat Service Trucking & Backhoe on June 28 for the demolition.
As of Sunday afternoon, the shed was still standing.
“It was a big surprise to me because none of the residents called and told me that it hadn’t happened — I just assumed it was down,” said Young.
Young, who called the shed a safety hazard, said that demolition should have started in July.
“The city is now looking into why has the contractor not done the work, and they’ll make sure that it gets done.”
In an email sent to Global News on Friday, Barbara Young said that contractor will begin demolition of the shed on Wednesday.
Global News called the owner of A & R Bobcat Service Trucking & Backhoe several times. He declined to be interviewed but did say that city permits delayed demolition by 6 to 8 weeks, and that the original plan was always to demolish the shed in December.
“I think five months would be more than enough time to come on site and do the demolition to the building, so disappointed it hasn’t happened to this point,” said Bachinski.
Skinner, who said she’s had to put out a fire at the shed once before, said that she would have liked to see the shed demolished much sooner but is happy it’s being removed, regardless.