OLIVER PAIPOONGE — There's still plenty of history to see at the recently renamed Oliver Paipoonge Heritage Park on Highway 61. but some parts of the attraction may stay closed to the public because they need upgrades the municipality can't afford.
Mayor Lucy Kloosterhuis said council has known since last year that it would cost over $900,000 to bring everything up to provincial building standards at what was previously known as the Founders Museum and Pioneer Village.
She said council had requested a study of what is required.
"What we're doing now is we're assessing those buildings, making a decision as to what buildings we are planning to work on and spend these kinds of funds on, and which ones are beyond the point of being feasible."
The estimated cost of the upgrades over about a 10-year period is $939,000.
"We were looking at approximately an average of $90,000 a year, but of course some years we would spend more than others," Kloosterhuis said. "We don't have any of those large amounts set aside to be spent this year. There was some money set aside to do some ramp work so that people could walk on the ramps, but nothing in the buildings. Right now we're making the decision of having an engineer go in to study what actually has to happen in each building .... It all has to be done to code. So we're looking at an engineer's study on a few of those buildings."
She said that in the meantime, some parts of the park will remain inaccessible.
"The general store and that one main building [Village Square] will not be open at this time, the house [Pioneer Home] is not open. Some of the buildings, you can see what goes on just by walking and looking in through the front, but we do have the hall [former Slate River Hall] itself, the school, the church, the teachers' home, the railway station and the antique cars [Russ's Garage]. That, for sure, is all going to be open this year."
Kloosterhuis declined to speculate about which buildings "we would not ever be opening again, or removing" until the engineering reports are completed.
"We can't just open the door and tell people you can look around. We have a lot more stringent codes to go by and we have to adhere to those because we carry that liability. If someone were to get hurt, the taxpayer is going to be footing the bill. And we don't want anyone to get hurt in any of those buildings."
The Oliver Paipoonge Heritage Park is scheduled to open for the season on the Victoria Day weekend.
