Tammy Donahue Buziak of the Battlefords North West Historical Society makes a plea at Battleford council Monday to save the former St. Vital Church. (Angela Brown/battlefordsNOW Staff)

By Angela Brown

Old St. Vital

Historical Society makes plea to save former St. Vital Church, hoping cost can be reduced

Oct 8, 2019 | 11:49 AM

The Battlefords North West Historical Society made an appeal to save the former St. Vital Church at council Monday, asking the town to use the $35,000 assigned to potentially demolish the building next year to help restore it instead.

Committee member Tammy Donahue Buziak made a presentation to Battleford council urging members find a way to salvage the building, citing its historical value.

“The Town of Battleford has set aside $35,000 for its demolition. So we’re asking the town if they could just invest that money back into this historic property to keep it for future generations,” she said.

Based on the historical society’s review of the engineer’s report, Donahue Buziak said that the document shows the building could be maintained for $50,000, not the full $500,000 the town had referenced.

The over-a-century-old church was officially recognized as a Canadian Historic site in 1985.

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“Saskatchewan has an interest in saving cultural and historic places and this is considered such a place,” Donahue Buziak said.

Following council, Mayor Ames Leslie said the cost is still $500,000, not $50,000 to save the church unfortunately.

He said while the engineer’s report indicates $50,000 is the price to maintain the building, that doesn’t include the cost for the work to make the building fit to allow a person to enter it. It also doesn’t include the asbestos removal cost.

“That doesn’t make it so you can use it whatsoever,” Leslie said of the $50,000 price reference.

“The engineering report has been done and it lays it out pretty clearly as to what needs to be done,” Leslie added. “To get up to re-using the building, again it is upwards to half a million dollars. … That number can go back and forth by $100,000. It could be $600,000 or it could be done for $400,000. But $50,000 maintains it, yes, but doesn’t allow anyone to use it.”

The mayor added “something went wrong” when new shingles were put on the roof in 2010 because the roof on the old church is still leaking. He said water is running into the building, and “it is wrecking the integral structure of the church.”

There is a lot more work that needs to be done on the building than what people are “seeing and believing,” Leslie said.

“We have the report here at town hall if anyone wants to see it,” Leslie said. “So it is not as simple as $50,000. I wish it was. I wish this was a fight over $50,000 but it could be upwards to half a million dollars to bring this building back to being able to use.”

The mayor said council has passed a recommendation that states members of the community have until January if anyone wants to come forth with a plan on how to save the church and raise the required $500,000 cost for the project.

He said council already made a decision that the building cannot simply sit in its present state, and is not fit or safe for use with the integrity of the structure in question.

Leslie mentioned the Fred Light Museum has started a GoFundMe page to raise funds to try to save the old St. Vital Church building. If the full value can’t be raised to bring the building up to its required useable condition, the group said they would like to build a replica of the former church instead.

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angela.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @battlefordsnow