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OPINION: Save the Trinity Church Manse

City council approved the impending tear down of the registered heritage Trinity Church manse, the minister’s house, opposed by the Heritage Advisory Committee.

City council approved the impending tear down of the registered heritage Trinity Church manse, the minister’s house, opposed by the Heritage Advisory Committee.

Trinity Church let basic maintenance, like roof repair, escalate to a serious repair because they didn’t want to spend the money. Now they use the damage to circumvent the Heritage Act, prepared to spend more than $25,000 for demolition.

“Demolition by neglect”.

That $200,000 repair is an estimate. Historical construction methods may have lessened the water damage, which will not be known by an exterior inspection.

Not a condemned building with vagrants. A tenant currently lives in the manse. The manse has not been regularly rented at market rate to contribute to upkeep.

Trinity is refusing viable options so they keep 100 per cent control of the property. Is this the future site of a profitable event centre parking lot?

The heritage value (imagine something conventional on the corner of Park Avenue and Algoma Street South) and the Heritage Committee recommendation override the wants of Trinity Church not to consider all options for preserving the manse.

I suggest two municipal options. The first is a low interest loan fund (inflation plus one per cent for Thunder Bay’s few registered heritage buildings. The second is a “playbook” of restoration volunteers.

An occupied manse can be profitable, add needed residential units, serve as a deterrent to crime in that area, and be done without the church losing control of the property.

The manse is irreplaceable and demolition will create an irreversible scar on that corner. Flexible thinking and initiative can solve this problem before it is too late.

Paul Sloan,
Red River Ward Candidate





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