By Ashley Wiebe

City waiting for test results before demolishing flood-damaged homes

Dec 28, 2016 | 9:38 AM

MEDICINE HAT, AB — Plans to demolish homes rendered uninhabitable following the 2013 flood have been put on hold so the city can test the buildings to ensure they can be safely demolished.

The city made offers on six derelict properties which received damage during the floods. Two of the owners rejected the offers, while a third is still in talks with the province.

“We were successful in acquiring three properties, two of which that we’ve now taken title to and the third of which is sitting with Alberta Land Titles right now,” said Grant MacKay with the city.

MacKay said the city was expecting to have started demolition on one of the Elm Street properties and a home on Bridge Street before the holidays.

But plans have been put on hold until after the new year.

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The city says before they demolish anything, they need to know exactly what they’re dealing with.

“As part of our efforts to be cognizant of environmental concerns, contamination, we’ve gone and done some testing on some of the attic insulation, things like the stucco on the exterior of the building,” said MacKay. “Those materials have now been sent off to a lab for testing to assess whether or not they contain things like asbestos or other potential contaminates.”

Test results on the samples are expected to come back in January.

“If there’s no contaminates then we’ll just proceed to move ahead with demolition,” he said. “If there are some things that we have to be aware of and look at abatement schemes, then we’ll factor that into the demolition plan that we’ll build going forward.”

MacKay said that won’t impact the city’s initial budget for the project, it’s just another step that needed to be taken.

“We want to do it as effectively as possible, making sure that the public is properly aware of what’s going on,” he said.

Karel Mason lives across from two of the derelict properties, and says not much has changed since the city initially made offers on the homes.

“Police have been called a few times, drug paraphernalia was brought out of one of the houses and from what I’ve heard, in the summer, the shed in one of the back of the houses was used as a brothel,” she said.

Mason, who had her basement flood in 2013, can only guess at the damage the water did to the two homes across the street.

“It was just water and sewer but there was almost eight feet of it in our basement,” she said.

Mason said she’s not holding her breath on when demolition might begin.

“I’m at the point of shrugging my shoulders ’cause it’s three years,” said Mason, who went on to say it would be nice to wake up one morning and see them gone