8 June 2007
No Money Yet to Save Roundhouse
Kentville Nova Scotia - There appears to be little or no
specific monies available for preservation or restoration of the historic Kentville DAR roundhouse.
Kentville town council has voted to demolish the structure in order to further open up the former CP Rail lands to development. But
those with interest in the town's railway heritage want some time to assess the abandoned structure, see what needs to be done, and
determine how much it will cost.
Kings Historical Society president Maynard Stevens said he could think of no immediate funding available for such a project, but noted
that "when such structures are gone, they're gone."
Before any major decision is taken on the matter, there should at least be a review of the potential, Stevens said. Stevens is also a
New Minas village commissioner.
"People have to know what built Kentville," Stevens said.
However, he acknowledged that the Society's Kings County Museum faces financial limits, including having to close three months of the
year and the volunteer base is not increasing.
Former Kentville mayor and former curator of the Kings County Museum, Art Pope, acknowledged that he's not very popular with the
"let's save everything group".
But he said of the roundhouse, "I'd like to visit it and see what condition it really is in."
Council would have to consider a lot of things before it could agree to any roundhouse project, he said.
Town has Other Needs
Pope noted that the community needs a number of things, including an indoor swimming pool, new recreation facility, and library.
"They need to be looking at today and tomorrow, not at yesterday," Pope said. "Council has to go very slow. There are
many important things to be done in keeping Kentville a viable town."
County museum curator Bria Stokesbury said, "once it's torn down, there's no opportunity to explore it."
She lamented that "built heritage in general seems to be disposable in Kings County."
Jay Underwood of Nova Scotia Railway Heritage Society said the property has to be assessed before any costing can be done.
"This potential cannot be explored if the building is torn down," Underwood said. "Kentville has a bad reputation in
Nova Scotia for doing this sort of thing."
He said any suggestion that funding and volunteer energy put on the roundhouse project would impact negatively the Kings Historical
Society and its Kings County Museum could not be confirmed. He suggested that such talk was a
"divide-and-conquer" tactic.
In fact, he said, the society could be a lead group in the restored roundhouse.
He pointed out that there are three potential funding sources for a roundhouse project, but couldn't guarantee monies would be
available from any of them in a given year.
Potential Funding
The potential sources were communicated to supporters by the Heritage Canada Foundation and included the Cultural Spaces Canada
Program, the Municipal Rural Infrastructure Fund, and the Infrastructure Canada Program.
The organization's executive director Natalie Bull wrote to Mayor Dave Corkum and council, suggesting they put the demolition on hold
and look at integrating the structure into development plans and pursue potential funding sources.
She later told The Advertiser, however, that her foundation has no money for such projects itself. It's an advocacy organization. She
suggested that ACOA may have funding for such developments.
She said the town or developers could recycle the building instead of constructing a new structure. "We have to recycle our
structures. We have to be more creative." An appraisal would ascertain if the project were sustainable, Bull said.
Nova Scotia Heritage Trust program coordinator Kevin Barrett said that monies could be available to help out if the project were
registered as a heritage project, municipally or provincially.
The roundhouse is not registered municipally because Kentville has no heritage bylaw. But the property owner - the town - could request
that it be designated as a provincial heritage site. Staff would assess the building in response to the town's application.
Then there could be a conservation advisory grant. Following that, there are other funds, the percentage of which depends on the
application. There could be other funds from other levels of government, Barrett said.
Acknowledging that the amounts appear limited compared to the full costs, Barrett said, "this is not to say that if a project is
designatied it doesn't have greater value."
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