Effort to Save Riverside School From Wrecking ball

Riverside resident David Batista is spearheading a campaign to try to save the old Riverside School.

The fate of a more than century-old school will be up for a public hearing at Monday’s council meeting. But a resident of the Riverside is canvassing neighbours to save the Riverside School.

Riverside resident David Batista has started a group seeking to keep the building or at least see the space turned into a public park.

“We’re talking to people to get their perspective on what they want to see done with the school,” said Batista during a break in canvassing Saturday. “We’re talking to people about the possible demolition to see what they want to get done with the school, if they want to see it refurbished, turned into a caregiver facility like it was originally planned with Covenant Health or if they want it to be turned into a park.”

Riverside School was closed in the spring of 2017, the following year sold to Covenant Health for $850,000 to the public school board plus an additional $71,000 to the city for its portion of the land for a proposed seniors’ housing facility.

Monarch Land Ltd. subsequently purchased the property which in 2019 saw its zoning switched from Community Services to Direct Control which requires city council approval for any activity requiring a permit including demolition existing structures or building new ones.

Riverside School. (File photo)

Last month the Municipal Planning Commission heard background regarding the demolition application and that the building has become a magnet for vandalism while becoming structurally degraded.

Batista said there is community support to keep the historic building, pegging that number to between 60 to 70 per cent of those he’s spoken to during his canvassing efforts. That support is for the building to be kept and become a seniors’ facility, veterans’ home or day home.

” They want to see it continue to be a hub in the community where this will still be a centrepiece in the community,” he said, pointing out the school was built to last.

Batista said in addition to the neighbourhood losing its elementary school, it lost its outdoor pool with no replacement and commitments to build a seniors’ facility have also haven’t been kept.

But there are those in the neighbourhood who are fine with tearing the school down with one resident, who did not want to be named, stating that he doesn’t want to see taxpayer money used to restore the building that has become an eyesore.

But Batista highlighted the building is consistent with the aesthetic of the neighbourhood and represents the community’s pioneers who built a structure to last.

During the Nov. 12 Municipal Planning Commission meeting, Brad Wenzel, contractor for Prime Builders and applicant on behalf of Monarch Land, said the plan is to create a sub-division on the land of 18 to 20 lots for low-density housing.

Wenzel stated the James Marshal brick relief mural would be kept as well as the school’s cornerstone as well as other individual elements of the building.

Batista is asking residents to write to city councillors to show their support for keeping the school and to show up to the next council meeting to oppose the demolition of the building.

A public hearing regarding the demolition permit will be held on Monday during city council’s regular meeting starting at 6:30 pm.

The Nov. 5 Municipal Planning Commission Meeting can be viewed exclusively on the Medicine Hat Owl’s YouTube page.