ISAAC’S HARBOUR — In May, this newspaper reported that the fate of the Isaac’s Harbour District Medical Centre – which has not provided medical services due to lack of staff for many years – depended on the formation of a new board to renew the lease for the property, which is owned by the Municipality of the District of Guysborough (MODG).
A board was not formed and, following the expiration of the lease to the former medical centre board, the building – a former school that houses a community fitness centre and, up until recently, the local post office – was offered for lease to any other interested community groups.
MODG Councillor Hudson MacLeod, who represents Isaac’s Harbour, told The Journal on Sept. 6 that one group had shown interest, but backed out and no other group has come forward.
MacLeod said it was the consensus of council to close the building “within a week or so.”
He added, “The post office has moved to the fire department in Isaac’s Harbour. And, we will put the building up [for lease] to see if anybody is interested in it...and after that, we’ll put it up for sale.”
The fitness centre will remain in the building until the municipality finds a new home for the equipment, said MacLeod.
If the building is put up for sale, as with other assets the MODG has acquired over the years – like similar decommissioned schoolhouses and the former Nova Scotia Liquor Corporation store in Guysborough—it could be sold to a community group for one dollar.
“We’ll give it to any community groups for that amount of money, but they’ll have to take all cost related to the building over, and get all the paperwork in place,” said MacLeod.
And those costs could be high, as MacLeod pointed out the municipality had a lot of issues with the building from wiring to mold, “The building isn’t really up to standards for anybody right now...we have some major concerns on the health side of it.”
Speaking to the future of the building, MacLeod said, “I don’t think we can do anything with it. If another community group wants to take it over [they can]. If not, if somebody wants to buy it, we’ll sell it to them and it will be their problem, not ours anymore.”
