City suing builder over water damage to archives

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This article was published 16/05/2015 (3997 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The city has filed a lawsuit over water damage sustained during a rainstorm that shuttered the City of Winnipeg Archives, a heritage building that originally served as the city’s first public library.

On Friday, the city filed a statement of claim against a Winnipeg construction company contracted to demolish and rebuild the roof of the former Carnegie Library on William Avenue.

The neoclassical structure, completed in 1905, served as the city’s main public library until 1977, when the Millennium Library opened on Donald Street.

The Carnegie Library was converted into the City of Winnipeg Archives in 1994 and started undergoing a series of renovations in 2009.

On June 20, 2013, while work to the roof was underway, heavy rains penetrated the archives. According to an annual report issued later that year by the city’s records committee, approximately 450 boxes of records were damaged during the storm, leading the city to spend $150,000 to repair the archived materials.

The storm also damaged plaster ceilings, fixtures, flooring, walls and woodwork and forced city archivists to move into temporary offices, initially at city hall and later at 50 Myrtle St. in the Pacific industrial neighbourhood.

“We acknowledge the inconvenience to our clients,” city communications manager Steve West said in a statement, adding researchers are being accommodated “to the best of our abilities” on Myrtle Street.

The rehabilitation of the archives building is incomplete, and there is no time frame to reopen the William Avenue building, West said.

In the meantime, the city has taken legal action against Gardon Construction, the firm contracted to conduct the roof repairs. In the statement of claim issued Friday, the city alleges an engineering firm advised Gardon how to ensure no water entered the building when the roof was being replaced.

The city alleges the existing wooden roof and the new steel roof were exposed when the rainstorm hit. The city claims Gardon took “inadequate steps to ensure there would be no water penetration” and is now seeking unspecified damages, interest and costs.

The city’s allegations have not been proven in court, and a statement of defence has not been filed.

Gary Johnson, Gardon’s president and owner, said his legal counsel will review the statement of claim, which he said he received Friday afternoon.

“It surprised me a little bit,” he said in a telephone interview. “We had some small issues a couple of years back, and we hadn’t heard anything since.”

The city last communicated with him 18 months ago, he said, adding he believed the issues had been resolved.

The Carnegie Library was built with a $75,000 donation from Andrew Carnegie, the Scottish-American industrialist who spent 90 per cent of his fortune on philanthropic efforts that included the construction of libraries across Canada, the U.S. and the U.K.

 

bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca