Jarrad McCoy, a Milk River resident and contractor believes his former high school could be transformed into something that could benefit Milk River.
“We’d love to re-purpose this to be an asset to the community,” said McCoy.
Erle Rivers High School is set to be demolished, as the province announced back in 2021 that it would be building a new K-12 school, in the place of the former elementary school, which is set to open sometime in December.
However, McCoy says rather than getting rid of the old building; it could be made into something new.
“Horizon School Division taught me as a student to reduce, reuse and recycle,” explained McCoy. “Much of this building is turnkey use to meet community needs that are here now.”
“A growing local church is looking for a larger home, a daycare location is needed to support our hospital staff and other local professionals, locals that are hoping for a senior accessible library, just to mention a few of the needs.”
But above all, they’re looking to create housing.
“One of the big hurdles in the past, for even businesses to locate here was, where are the employees going to live.”
Retired Milk River doctor, Liesl Lewke-Bogle says this potential project could solve a lot of problems the town is currently faced with.
“This project would be a god send because of the problems we have in Milk River is a lack of housing units, everybody wants to sell, nobody wants to rent and people coming into the community aren’t always ready to commit to purchasing property,” said Lewke-Bogle.
She went on, “Over the last number of years, nurses and other health care professionals who have tried to come to the community have found that they’ve had to commute from Lethbridge or Raymond or elsewhere to come and work, and so that hinders the employability.”
In 2023, McCoy approached the Horizon School Board, the group who gives the final say in the demolition, with possible solutions to save the school.
He drafted plans that contained rental properties, community spaces and a church that could take over the space, however Horizon said the school was in poor condition.
Horizon School Division responded for comment in a statement saying;
“The Board of Trustees of the Horizon School Division is aware of Mr. McCoy’s recent interest to repurpose Erle Rivers High School in Milk River, Alberta. The Board has discussed this topic with Alberta Infrastructure, Alberta Education, Milk River Town Council and Mr. McCoy who had the opportunity to make a presentation in 2023 at a school board meeting.
“The Board sought and received conditional approval from the Government of Alberta to salvage Erle Rivers High School based on a Town of Milk River request, however Milk River Town Council met on December 11, 2023 and wrote a letter, dated December 18, 2023, to the Board in which they communicated that “Council has concurred, and have decided to support Horizon School Division’s decision to demolish the Erle Rivers High School.”
The school division also stated that Alberta Education was not supportive of the modernization of the facility and that asbestos abatement is estimated to be $1.1 million.
McCoy indicated that private investors are willing to cover that cover costs and the $250,000 that would be required to cancel the demolition contract, but the district hasn’t talked to him since last summer.
“New construction of this quality of building starts around $300 dollars a square foot. Even new residential construction is around $200 a square foot and if you’re lucky to retrofit some of these units would be about half that … Probably $100 a square foot,” said McCoy.
“So, it’s a huge head start towards completing units having a high-quality structure sitting there, roof, walls and foundation.”
While McCoy hopes there can be further discussion for the project before demolition, Horizon has indicated that once the land is clear it will be passed off to the Town of Milk River for future development.