Screenshot of video of demolition. (Twisted Pare Productions video)

By Angela Brown

Legacy walk project

Committee continues plans for commemorative walk on former Sask. Hospital grounds

Aug 4, 2021 | 5:49 PM

The local committee that plans to create a legacy walk on part of the grounds of the former Saskatchewan Hospital North Battleford in the future are continuing with their work.

Some key parts of the structure were removed and preserved for the committee of the Battlefords North West Historical Society prior to the demolition.

Features salvaged include the cornerstone, some historical doors and some of the brick-work from the former smoke-stack in the centre of the complex — items that have a heritage or historical interest.

Jane Shury, chair of the committee working on the project originally known as the Save Saskatchewan Hospital North Battleford, says the project will be a legacy walk “in honour of a century of caring.”

“It is something that is not going to happen overnight,” she said of the project.

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She said it will be a place where people will be able to walk and remember.

The project will honour the patients as well as the staff of over the first 100 years of the hospital’s history.

“It’s just in its first formative stages,” Shury said, adding that memorabilia will be displayed in places along the walk to pay homage to the site.

She said it’s difficult to know when the committee will be able to start work on the plan whether that is this fall or in the spring next year.

“We have really excellent, co-operative meetings,” Shury said. “The [provincial] government has been very considerate as to what we want to do and why we want to do it.”

The province will continue to preserve and maintain the three cemeteries adjacent to the site, which will be accessible for family members and the public. The historic stone chapel was also preserved, as well as the stone walls — little low-running walls that are throughout the property

Ownership of the Veterans’ Park, consisting of an array of trees and the cenotaph memorial site, will be transferred to the City of North Battleford which will maintain the site in the future and make it accessible to the public.

Silverado Demolition Operations Inc. of Saskatoon completed the removal of the former Saskatchewan Hospital North Battleford and the other structures on the grounds this year.

The company’s administrator Cathy Sarich said they expect to be fully complete their work and be off the site by the end of August.

“We have to still put in some top-soil and put seed on the ground,” she said. “Wherever there was a building we will have some grass planted back in there. We expect to hand the project site back over to the government by the end of August.”

Sarich said the massive demolition project went smoothly throughout. The only challenge was dealing with the safe removal of asbestos that was found in all the buildings and structures.

“We had expected to locate [the hazardous material] because of the age of the building,” she said. “There was a report done for the government stating where and how much asbestos and hazardous goods they expected.”

Workers kept finding more of the material during the demolition process.

“In behind some of the walls or a partition or something we would discover some of that. So it kind of got delayed a little bit, just having that removed, according to law and regulations, and getting it disposed of properly,” Sarich said. “But everything else went well. We are really pleased with how the project went.”

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angela.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @battlefordsNOW