One of the largest expenses in this year’s budget for Pictou County is the demolition of the former East Pictou School. The school finally closed in 2020 after nearly seventy years in use, and attempts to sell the building were unsuccessful. Budget Demolition was the successful bidder on the demolition project at a cost of 1.58 million dollars. Warden Robert Parker says the cost for the demolition came in 50 percent higher than anticipated.
To prevent a significant tax increase, council voted to fund the majority of the demolition costs with a loan from county reserves to be paid back, with interest, over ten years.
Four councilors voted against awarding the tender, as Budget Demolition is not a local company and may not be using local labour. Warden Parker and several other councilors noted that while it would have been better to hire locally, the difference in the next lowest bid was more than three hundred thousand dollars, too high to justify excluding the winning bid.