The Town of Battleford's lease with the now defunct GLM Tanks factory in its industrial area for the adjacent property where they stored their tanks is being cancelled.
"Because they are in receivership, there's nowhere to go with it," Town Administrator Sheryl Ballendine told councillors at their last meeting Dec. 21. "I believe they were to give us six months notice, but you can't get blood from a stone."
It was a five-year lease which was to end in December 2018.
GLM Industries LP declared bankruptcy in July of this year, in response to the woes afflicting the entire oil and gas industry in 2015. Their manufacturing plant in Battleford was permanently closed July 10, but a temporary closure had been announced in June. After an asset liquidation auction at the end of October, the Battleford site was vacated as of November.
Mayor Derek Mahon said, "It's really unfortunate, but with the worldwide price of oil, there's not much you can do."
It's sad to see when you drive down there, he added. There are no cars, no tanks, just "a big property with a couple of lights on."
Although the site has been cleaned up, council will wait until spring to determine the condition of the property that was leased and whether or not it could be made available for lease by someone else.
There were five parcels leased by GLM, each about an acre and a half in size, said Ballendine. Some may not be as useful as others as they are closer to the edge of the Battle River.
In other business, council passed a bylaw regarding 13 property leases approved at a prior meeting. All the leases were awarded to the highest bidders except for one, which was awarded to previous holder Bill Volk because of the work he has done on the property. Others awarded leases were previous leaseholders Mark Isaac, John Rowlands, Richard Beckman, Linda Hauk, Robert Hunt of Hardy Plant Nursery, Bill Newman, Daryl Turuk, Stewart Porter and Ed Loewen.
The leases will run from Jan. 1, 2016 to Dec. 31, 2020.
