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Council approves Terrace Co-op demolition

IT'S ONLY a matter of time before the former Terrace Co-op building no longer is part of the downtown.

IT'S ONLY a matter of time before the former Terrace Co-op building no longer is part of the downtown.

In its regular meeting last night, Aug. 8, council approved spending $284,000 to demolish the building, and only one councillor opposed the move.

"I feel that this amount of money to put into the Co-op is throwing money away," said councillor Lynne Christiansen before the vote.

"I can't see a reason to do it right now. If we had someone ready to buy it, but we don't...I'm not convinced the whole building needs to be demolished and there's lots of things we can do with the money," she said, adding that if council is only demolishing the building because it said it would, then that wasn't a good enough reason to spend all that money.

"I will not be supporting it."

Christiansen said there are still contamination issues to be dealt with at the location and that just because the building looks unsightly, that's no reason to tear it down.

Councillors Bruce Bidgood, Brad Pollard, Carol Leclerc, Brian Downie and Bruce Martindale voted in favour of the Co-op demolition.

The city bought the Co-op building and property in late 2005 for $1 million and is still paying off the loan.

It's come under increasing criticism for its inability to sell the property or otherwise have it developed.

The decision to tear down the building, the city hopes, will do away with one obstacle for future development at the location.