The Midway Community Association is eyeing the acquisition of land where the vacated Midway School presently sits.Midway School closed just over one year ago in a decision made by Chinook's Edge School Division following a viability study.The association has formed a proposal that will be presented to the school division's board of trustees in the near future. This includes the demolition of the school and transfer in ownership of the land on which the school sits.If the transfer were made, the school's utility bills would also be the responsibility of the community association. Recently, costs related to the school's upkeep have been about $16,000, said Murray Marsh, community association secretary-treasurer.ìThe building has asbestos in it and because of the maintenance costs, we don't feel that we can maintain the building,î he said, adding that high cost led to the proposal including the building's demolition.ìWhat the community has proposed is that if Chinook's Edge wants to deal with the remediation of the building and the yard site where the fuel tanks were, we would like to take over ownership of the property.îThe property in question is a five-acre parcel that sits adjacent to community-owned land, which includes a community centre, baseball diamonds, a soccer field, and campsite.If the proposal is accepted, Marsh said there are no plans to build anything else on the property once the school is removed, but added that it could serve as overflow campsite.A water well servicing both the school and the community facility is located on the school-owned property, something the community association hopes to utilize going forward.ìIf they could provide us access to the property so that we can continue to have a water source, otherwise the cost of acquiring a water source through a well or any other means is fairly significant,î Marsh said, adding that costs could reach $10,000.Playground equipment purchased through community fundraising efforts is located on the school property. This helped fuel the community association's interest in its proposed transaction.ìWe would like to be able to keep this as community property,î Marsh said, adding that the playground continues to be popular among area children.ìThe school board has discussed along the way that it certainly wasn't their intent to take over ownership of the equipment that we raised money for, but it would obviously be difficult to move to the community side of the property.î
