There are widespread reports and rumours that the municipality will buy the land where the soon-to-be closed Diggers and the Oil Can are, and use it as part of the downtown redevelopment.
However, the municipality says it does not currently own the land; though if it were planning to buy it, it couldn’t comment while a sale is pending.
“Were there to be any kind of land acquisition by the Municipality for any private properties,” explained spokesman Matthew Harrison, “due to the legal nature of these transactions the Municipality would not discuss them while they were pending. ”
Harrison says the municipality is neither confirming nor denying that it’s looking to acquire that land.
Regarding media reports that there is already a planned tear-down of the businesses as part of downtown redevelopment, Harrison said “I’m not sure where they’re getting their information from.”
Mayor Melissa Blake unveiled several large projects for the downtown two weeks ago; but the locations haven’t been finalized.
Published July 9, 2012
