Riverside set for demolition

By Gillian Slade on July 5, 2018.

gslade@medicinehatnews.com  @MHNGillianSlade

A school that was the seat of learning in Medicine Hat for more than a century is slated for demolition.

The sale of Riverside School was approved by the Ministry of Education this spring and officially sold to Covenant Health for $850,000, said Mark Davidson, superintendent SD76.

Covenant Heath plans to build a seniors’ living facility on the site, which is already zoned community services and discretionary use, which includes seniors’ housing and continuing care programs, said Truman Severson, president of Covenant Care and Covenant Living.

“The next step in the process is going to be trying to discern what the needs and opportunities are in the Medicine Hat community.”

Renovation of the property is not in the cards.

“We won’t be renovating it,” said Severson. “We are going to take very careful steps to make sure the beautiful clay sign in front of the school, done by a local artist, … will be incorporated into the building design somewhere.”

The school board imposed no restrictions on the property but requested the preserving of the fairly recent mural by James Marshall at the front of the school.

The historic school building has attractive architectural details, including a lavish staircase and banisters in dark wood.

Severson says there may be an opportunity to incorporate other features of the property once it works with an architect on a design for the new building.

“If there are other features we can kind of take, that provide a lasting memory of the historical significance of the site, then we’re happy to do that as well,” said Severson.

There is no time frame for the demolition of the school and construction of a new building.

“Really can’t say. It really is totally subject on kind of what we learn through again trying to discern what the needs and opportunities are in the Medicine Hat community,” said Severson.

A year ago Riverside School’s bell rang for the last time. The financial cost of maintenance of the school having contributed to the decision to sell.

Proceeds from the sale of the school are in SD76’s capital reserve fund.

“What we traditionally have done with that is used it in order to do support/modernization such as what we’ve just recently did with Medicine Hat High School. Or to right size or up size portions of schools/new builds,” said Davidson.

The gymnasiums provided/approved by Alberta Education are considered too small to meet the needs of students, and the capital reserve is used to upgrade those, said Davidson.

When Earl Kitchener School was closed, the school board struggled to find a long-term tenant, and it was eventually purchased by a family who did extensive renovations and transformed it into a family home.

The fact that Riverside School sold relatively quickly is not surprising, said Davidson.

“We saw that area as being an area that was ready for development with a decent sized space in a nice location,” said Davidson. “It certainly is in a lovely area so we expected that we would receive offers.”

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