By Anne Finlay-Stewart

Would the city of Owen Sound want to own the downtown bus terminal if the buses no longer stopped there?

I do not have an answer. But if the community does, perhaps in the conversation that will occur in the one-year grace period agreed upon Thursday by council, there should be an opportunity for the subject to be considered before the building and its substantial asphalt surroundings are sold off, if efforts to find a partner are unsuccessful.

Realistically, once a public downtown space is sold, there will be no retrieving it for any communal purpose, and the conversation is over. It's a good thing we'll now be able to have that discussion.

Flashback.

When inaccessibility and over-crowding made the former public health building on First Ave. W. inadequate to its purpose, its selling price was part of the financing plan for the new build. With re-facing and plastic grass, the building is now privately managed and its offices leased to doctors, the Cancer Society and our local MPP.

Nothing wrong with that. Just one more publicly owned space, and its parking lot, that we don't need to look after.

But it is a building, and as much property again, on the river. This is the same river we extol in every tourist pitch for the city; the same riverfront the Sydenham condo builders are selling for more per square foot than any other in the region. And it will never be ours again.

Flash forward to, say, 2020.

The bus terminal is long since sold and gas is $2.25 a litre. Grey County is now implementing its full regional transportation plan, begun in 2013. Efficient (electric? hydrogen?) buses are now running regularly through Owen Sound as private gas-fueled vehicle use becomes more prohibitive. A terminal would really come in handy.

Everyone is reminded of the very short decade between the removal of the rails and the first time someone said "What we could really use up here is a train!"

And that is only assuming transit is the bus terminal property's best public use.
In the meantime, no one would suggest the city sit on a building that costs $50,000 annually to maintain, empty. So how could the building pay for itself while the conversation is held?

Could a not-for-profit or business make proposals in the city's search for contractors to manage parking enforcement and crossing guards? Could they use (and maintain) the bus terminal as part of that contract, reducing the city's maintenance costs as well as the cost of the contract? Could they agree to leave the washrooms open to the public as part of the deal? This is in line with suggestions made Thursday by Counc. Peter Lemon. 

This may not be the answer, but as we discovered with the old CNR station, we never really know until we let the community ask the questions.

Anne Finlay-Stewart is Community Editor of Owensoundhub.org. She can be reached at [email protected].