A contractor has now begun to tear down the old Beaver Valley Middle School in Fruitvale.
Mayor Wes Startup said they expect the work to continue into the fall, and conclude around the end of October, “however with demos, things can change quickly.”
The contractor is Napp Enterprises Ltd. of Kelowna. Startup said they have already done a lot of work inside the structure. Hazardous materials in the mechanical/boiler rooms needed remediation.
If the work remains on schedule, the building will disappear 55 years to month after it opened as Beaver Valley Junior Secondary in 1970. It was renamed Beaver Valley Middle School in 1994, closed in 2003, and was sold in 2009 to someone who wanted to turn it into an international school for Korean students. However, the Village of Fruitvale acquired the property in 2018 and 2019 through a public foreclosure project.
The gym roof collapsed in the winter of 2023. The village sought to borrow $2 million to tear the building down, but that plan was defeated in a counterpetition process. The village subsequently secured a $1.27 million grant, part of which went toward asbestos remediation.
It is one in a series of major demolition projects currently underway in the West Kootenay. Others include the former C.S. Williams clinic in Trail, the old Glenmerry Elementary, and the Pioneer Arena in Castlegar.
The City of Castlegar also recently awarded a contract to tear down the Eremenko block downtown to make way for a new housing project, while crews in Trail will soon begin removing the old Eaton’s store as well.
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