Central Huron Mayor Jim Ginn says he expects the demolition of the buildings on the former Bluewater Centre for Young Offenders to get underway within the next couple of months.
Ginn says they now have a signed contract with a general contractor for the demolition. He says they won't actually be doing the work but will be overseeing the work, including supervising the removal of hazardous material and the demolition of the buildings.
They will also be in charge of monitoring costs.
Ginn explains none of the buildings inside the fenced area are worth saving. And the cost of the demolition has been subtracted from the price the municipality had to pay the Province for the property.
However there are two buildings that may be kept.
“There is one barn that sits outside of the fence, that's probably worth saving and the old pump house that pumped treated effluent from the lagoon that discharge into the lake. We'll probably keep that two buildings, but they're outside of the fenced area.”
As for the the future of the property, there are no firm plans yet.
“We have an interested party and we have two other potential ones, but we don't have anything signed at this point so, I've been close to signings before so, until it's actually complete, you know, it's not a deal until it's a deal, so nothing finalized.”
Ginn says he expects the General Contractor will be sending out RFPs very soon and that process will likely take four to six weeks with the demolition to start shortly after that process.
The centre was officially closed in 2012 and sits on 300 acres off of Highway 21, south of Goderich.