Remains are more than 50 years old
By LANCE HOLDFORTH, Special to the Examiner

The coroner has determined that bones found in the crawl space of the century-old Allandale train station are human.

Barrie police Det. Robert McLeod said the bones are more than 50 years, meaning it’s no longer a police investigation. The case now falls under the Cemetery Act.

“Once they’re over 50 years old, it’s treated as a cemetery and they are over 50 years old according to the expert,” McLeod said. “It looks like some kind of burial of some sort, which is the same as if you were digging up your swimming pool in the backyard and come across it.”

The City of Barrie will take over the investigation.

The Lakeshore Drive site’s restoration expert found the bones just under the sandy surface against the back wall while preparing the building for concrete pouring on Monday.

The person’s cause of death and gender haven’t been determined, but McLeod says the remains are in one area of the crawl space, which could mean there are more bones buried beneath.

“They’re pieces of bones, so the entire skeleton is possibly there, but we won’t know that until the archeologist goes in and starts doing their dusting and sifting,” he said. “They’re not scattered. They’re all within a small area, but it’s not like they uncovered a skeleton sitting there.”

The original station was built in 1853, but the remains were found in the basement of a 1905 addition.

Following several of years of vacancy, the station buildings are being refurbished. However, construction has been halted in the basement, which is now considered an archeological site.

“The City of Barrie will now have the archeologist come in and do their process they should be able to answer more questions at that time,” McLeod said.

Stan Mclean is no stranger to the railroad, having worked in the Allandale yard of the train station for more than 25 years.

“I started working there in ’51,” he said. “I can’t remember anything bad happening when I was there, but it was really busy. It was really going.”

Mclean said the train station was a hub for local travel at the time the bones are dated, but added he thought it was an aboriginal burial site.

“I just thought it was some old Indian bones, but I never thought much about until I heard they were human,” he said. “I thought they would be about 100 years old.”

The area where the bones were found will remain part of the investigation while restorations continue to the rest of the building, but Mclean says he remembers the building in its original form.

“That (building where bones were found) used to be an office building when I was around. I think it was a telegraph department when I started,” he said. “There’s a basement you can get in from a door on the outside on the north side of the building. I’ve only been in there once or twice.”

The Ministry of Consumer Services, which oversees cemeteries in the province, requested the city hire archeologists to proceed with the investigation to determine if the bones are native or non-native.

The city hired AMICK Consultants, which has offices in Port McNicoll and London, Ont.

McLeod said if signs of foul play do arise, a full investigation would be launched, but he thinks that’s unlikely.

news@thebarrieexaminer.com

Simcoe Article: Allandale land for sale in the fall.

Janis Ramsay, jramsay@simcoe.com

BARRIE – The Allandale station lands will be up for sale this fall.
The value of the land has previously been estimated at $3 million, and any developer that buys it will have to pay a further $1.8 million for improvements to the land.
General manager of infrastructure, development and culture Richard Forward said whoever buys the land should pay an extra $1.8 million for the tunnel underpass from Gowan onto the property and for the Gowan Street roadwork and sewer repairs.
“It’s not uncommon for the city to request the developer to pay for services,” Forward said. “We are not asking the developer to pay for the Gowan Street road works, we are asking the developer to pay for internal road works to the site that benefit development on the site.”
He said Park Place developer North American Development Group is paying for “the internal servicing improvements, (and) they are also paying for external road works to the site.”
Ward 10 Coun. Alex Nuttall, however, didn’t think it was fair to ask a developer to pay $1.8 million extra for roadwork and the GO Train underpass by Gowan Street.
“To charge a developer for the underpass, used by the provincial government’s GO Transit users, seems wrong to me,” said Nuttall. “And to charge a developer for roads that are being used by the city, the development, GO and eventually Re/Max seems wrong to me. Everyone should pair a fair share and not a penny more or less.”
Forward said the underpass is costing the city $3 million to build, and the developer is only being asked to pay $850,000 towards it. Forward also thought a $950,000 bill for Gowan Street road repairs was appropriate to hand to a developer.
Nevertheless, Nuttall said it was unfortunate council couldn’t agree to make a counter offer to The Correct Group of Companies, a developer that has spent three years working on a proposal for the land.
“We’ve invested three years on debate and to say we need more time is incorrect,” Nuttall said. “Time is passing by, along with tax money we could’ve earned.”
As Nuttall tried to nix the $950,000 roadwork bill and drop the underpass payment to $425,000, he said: “I’m very tired of having project after project here, then (we’re) throwing someone to the curb and three years later we still have nothing.”
“We don’t have a good record with purchase of sales,” he said.
Council disagreed with Nuttall, though, and wanted to see any future developer cough up more cash for the site.
“Developers are big boys and understand what they’re getting into,” said Ward 7 Coun. John Brassard. “We’re asking them to pay for something they normally pay for.”
And while Ward 2 Coun. Lynn Strachan and Ward 6 Coun. Michael Prowse wanted to see the property up for sale, they agreed there should be opportunities for something different.
Council had considered splitting the land into four parcels and selling them individually, but agreed to sell the land to only one developer.
“We’ve diluted this worse and worse and have gone from something dynamic and new to something that’s not particularly exciting,” said Prowse.
Mayor Jeff Lehman told council it was time to get moving on something, and council passed the motion to put the land up for sale.

By BOB BRUTON BARRIE EXAMINER

The name-game is on for Barrie’s second GO Transit train station.

The Allandale Neighbourhood Association and the newly formed Allandale Railway Historical Society gave city councillors a lesson Monday on the area’s rail history.

Both groups want the name ‘Allandale’ included in the new GO station’s name along Gowan Street. Its proposed name now is Barrie Waterfront.

“There are four organizations working to preserve and educate (people) on our rich rail history,” said Cathy Colebatch, of the ANA, also mentioning Heritage Barrie and the Barrie Historical Association. “This indicates a real interest in our rail history.

“We have a vision of our history and want to see it established.”

Barrie’s second GO Transit station is to be operational this year. The name of the city’s current GO station, in the south end, on Yonge Street, is being changed to St. Paul’s station in recognition of that area’s history.

Colebatch suggested ‘Allandale-Barrie’ or ‘Barrie-Allandale’ as names for the second GO station.

Mitchell Wilson, of the Allandale Railway Historical Society, told councillors how Barrie’s rail history dates back to the 1850s. Using a slideshow and a detailed explanation, Wilson explained how and why the railway is intertwined with Barrie’s history.

Council did not make a decision on the new GO station’s name on Monday.

It is part of a planned redevelopment of the nine acres of land at Tiffin Street and Lakeshore Drive near the city’s waterfront.

The former Allandale station is also being renovated by the city as part of this proposal, with an estimated $4.5 million price tag.

The city’s original tab for the restoration was $2 million, with the YMCA — which was a development partner with the Correct Group Inc. — picking up the remainder. But the Y withdrew from the redevelopment plan in January of 2010 for financing reasons.

Councillors were told in August of 2009 the station costs had jumped to $2.95 million, and in March of 2010 that they had increased to $3.4 million.

The entire bill now belongs to the city, which is responsible for the overall restoration and programming of the station and its immediate lands.

The former Allandale station is in bad shape, and was further damaged by a Jan. 4, 2009 fire. The city received $200,000 from insurance on the premises, but that did not cover the total cost of repairs.

But work is underway and is expected to be complete by the end of August.

Allandale Village, being developed by CGI, will be on more than half of the old Allandale train station property near Tiffin Street and Lakeshore Drive.

CGI wants the commercial/ residential portion of this project to be as large as 335,000 square feet on almost 4.7 acres of the nine-acre site. There would be five development areas and seven buildings as high as five storeys each of retail, commercial, office, condominium and hotel use.

There would be 224 residential units — half for hotel rooms, half for condominiums. It would take four to six years to build the entire project, with the first phase a minimum of 50,000 sq. ft. as soon as a building permit can be issued. And it’s expected that 65,000-70,000 sq. ft. will be built in each of the next five years, subject to the market and economic conditions.

CGI requires an approved site plan and building permits to move forward. The uses CGI is proposing on this property are allowed by the current zoning.

The employment impact of this development is expected to be 600 jobs, with significant permanent employment created as well.

There will be 471 parking spaces created on the land — 111 on the street and 360 underground.

bbruton@thebarrieexaminer.com

Hi All

Item 1:
We have been approved to do a our “Presentation to Council” on Monday January 17th , 7:00pm at City Hall in the Council Chambers. For those who can not attend tune in to Rogers Channel 10 @ 7:00pm

See remarks below from the City Clerks Office

It is my understanding that a staff report is being prepared for early March (March 7, I think by the time they get all the details on Metrolink’s costing).  As a result of the changes to the Council and General Committee agenda topics, we no longer have presentations every week so the next opportunity would be Feb 7th.  The Mayor was hoping to tie it into the staff report timing but when he heard yesterday about the March date, he felt we should allow you to move ahead with your presentation

Dawn McAlpine
City Clerk
Ext. 4421

We hope you can make it out to show support. This is our opportunity to educate and engage our new Council, Mayor Lehman and the general public. We will do a brief intro of our group, followed by Mitchell’s edited slide show depicting the Historical importance of the Allandale-Barrie Rail History to the City, then closing remarks. We are limited to 10 minutes.

Item 2:
The City plans to launch a survey for public input into the naming of the new “Go Station” – see information below
Request: As mentioned last evening the city is going to announce an on-line survey with regard to the naming of the Go Station….will they be suggesting names? or putting forward a few options to choose from? If choosing from…do you know what those options will be?

Response: The on-line survey format will be proposed by staff for Council to adopt prior to the on-line survey being accessible to the public.
At this time, staff envisions that for each of the GO Stations, a few options will be suggested in the on-line survey, plus an extra option to suggest a name for the 2 GO Stations not already listed. We envision 2 or 3 suggested names with a 4th line listed as “Other” to provide the survey responder with that opportunity.

The envisioned suggestions are:

1. For the new GO Station in the Allandale Station Lands:

a. Allandale GO Station

b. Barrie City Centre GO Station

c. Barrie Waterfront GO Station

d. Other:

2. For the GO Station adjacent to the Yonge Street-Mapleview Drive intersection (i.e. Barrie South end):

a. Barrie South GO Station (current name)

b. Painswick GO Station

c. St. Paul’s GO Station

d. Other:

The one primary constraint on GO Station names is that, at most, only one of the GO Station names can have “Barrie” (i.e. both GO Station names cannot have “Barrie” per GO Transit and CN Rail Station Naming protocol/policy).

As a point of clarification, the City is not renaming the Allandale Train Station itself

Item 3

Bridget Brown from ANews sent a link for a survey she thought we might be interested in filling out. Click on link below to open. I’ve already completed mine. downtownbarrie.ca/contact-us

Downtown Barrie, our Barrie needs all the help we can give

Sincerely
Cathy Colebatch & Bill Scott

For circulation to Barrie City council and staff September 20, 2010:

Why would anyone at city hall engineer a name change that does not respect history, heritage and people?

A professional consultant hired by the city of Barrie recently addressed the lack of suitable directional  signage that fails to inform people that we even have a waterfront or how to get there. New signage will soon be in place to fix these short-comings and oversights. This solution to rebranding Barrie’s jewel of a waterfront and advertising this attribute is the right thing to do, not changing the name of the future GO station to Barrie Waterfront. If there are people in Barrie that do not know that we have a waterfront shame on each of us and our councilors for not informing them.

Many Barrie residents are incredulous that another decision has jumped the tracks, circumvented public input and consultation. For a few years the working names of the planned GO stations in Barrie were South Barrie and North Barrie. Several months ago Metrolinx unofficially changed the future northern station working name to Allandale Station.

They changed the project working name to avoid confusion using the name Barrie twice. The choice of Allandale Station was common sense and respected the neighbourhood and building beside the future platform. This change was precipitated because of safety, emergency and logistical reasons.

Library and internet sources have an abundance of references regarding the historic Allandale neighbourhood of Barrie. Its heritage and history is beyond refute and holds great weight and credibility. The South Barrie GO station has already established itself for a number of years. Its name implies there is another station north of it, or will be in the future. With the utmost respect for the history of this area of Barrie, there is no need to change this station’s name to St. Paul’s.

It makes sense that one of the two Barrie GO station names utilizes the name of the municipality it resides in. This is an established naming protocol and practice throughout the GO rail system. It does not make sense under the current circumstances to change the station name to St. Paul’s. Such a change would cause confusion to travelers who would not be aware that they had in fact arrived in Barrie or that it is not a new station, just renamed.

With the approval of Heritage Barrie and City Council, ERA Architects’ have already established that the station will be restored to the 1905 era standards. This includes the restoration of the Grand Trunk Railway station sign of Allandale. Work is already underway in the next stage of restoration despite missteps over the last few years and as recently as a few weeks ago.

Neither Heritage Barrie or the Barrie Historical Association can or will allow anything else to be put on the restored building because of the guidelines that are in place to preserve its heritage and that of this neighbourhood. Some may argue that only the platform would be called Barrie Waterfront and the station would still be called Allandale Station. Such a choice would cause further confusion to users – Metrolinx does not use two names at any other stations in the system.

Very simply, city officials cannot change the name of the building and therefore the future GO station.

There are currently 59 GO train stops in the 7 current Metrolinx rail routes. Only two of them refer to a geographic location – eg. Etobicoke North & Barrie South. Three refer to educational or travel destinations. 6 Refer to major streets and 18 share the name of the municipality they serve. The vast majority of station names, 30 of the 59, reflect the neighbourhood they serve using a historical link to the area’s past. These names echo the area, communities, villages, and towns of bygone days. The names thereby respect the heritage, history and people of the
past and present.

City Council endorsed the Historic Neighbourhood Strategy initiative that engaged many people across the city of Barrie over the last year, culminating in a report that council recently accepted. Allandale residents were some of the most engaged of the 6 historic neighourhoods and this process was to set and establish a precedence for a new approach to planning in our city. Consult the people first before major decisions are made.

Council has yet to conduct consultations of residents and interest groups to determine the future possible uses of the restored train station buildings. On the top of many peoples’ list is using part of the station as a station. What a novel thought! In conversations with GO officials last year I suggested that each of the 12 future platform waiting areas could be named and designed to reflect and respect historical facts, people or events of this area. I was told
that GO was open to this possibility and that future public meetings would address the many concerns and ideas that people held.

These meetings have simply not happened though repeatedly Allandale residents have requested them. Council’s credibility and that of the Historic Neighbourhood Strategy initiative hinges on the decision of the name of the new GO station. Call it what it is – Allandale Station. If it’s not broke, don’t fix it.

I humbly ask council to make a formal motion to keep the new GO station’s name as Allandale Station, just as Metrolinx was planning on and what people want.

Renaming the Barrie South GO Station to St Paul’s GO makes sense. St Paul’s is an old community, formerly part of Innisfil but now part of Barrie. Renaming the station recognizes the history of the area in which the relatively new station is situated.

In contrast, renaming the Allandale GO Station the ‘Barrie Waterfront GO’ is a pure and utter insult to the history of the area and the current Allandale community. It flies in the face of the fine work the city has done with its Historic Neighbourhood Strategy, and its encouragement of a community of neighbourhoods.

Allandale, once the rival town across the bay from Barrie, remains a distinct community to this day. Starting in the 1850s, trains pulled into Allandale Station, once a jewel of the line.

Today, our city is boldly restoring the original station and preparing to build a new GO platform that will bring trains back into the heart of our historic railway community. The respect of these investments is completely undermined by stripping away the Allandale name without public consultation.

If Barrie must be part of the name, add it on without taking away our heritage. Call it the Barrie Allandale GO Station or Allandale Barrie GO.

Let’s leap forward, but not at the cost of our own history. Don’t steal from Allandale while giving to St Paul’s: at very least, Allandale deserves the same respect and tributes.

The Barrie Advance. Janis Ramsay, STAFF, Aug 31, 2010 – 6:00 AM

BARRIE – Allandale-area residents, make way for progress.

GO Transit told the Barrie Advance via e-mail it has “recently renamed” the new station the Barrie Waterfront GO Station. When funding was announced in March, the station was called the Allandale GO Transit station.

“As soon as this hits the media, all of the ‘old Allandale’ residents will be upset,” said Brad Rudachyk, co-author of city history book Beautiful Barrie.

“Going forward it may make sense to some, but it’s not in keeping with the local history of the area. It comes down to do you value the history or not?”

The Allandale station was named for Toronto businessman and rail advocate William Allan, who died months before the railway actually reached this area in the 1850s. But the Allandale name isn’t dead in the area, said Rudachyk, as it’s still reflected in the Allendale Recreation Centre, and is the name of the old station on the property.

Mayor Dave Aspden has no problem with the name change. A memo issued to council June 28 about the change also includes renaming the existing Barrie South terminal to the St. Pauls’ GO Station. The reason behind the change is GO Transit doesn’t allow for two stations to include the same name – Barrie – in two different locations.

“The new name identifies that the GO train is available there, and Barrie has one of the greatest waterfronts,” said Aspden. “Allandale is part of the waterfront and I don’t think we’ll ever lose that connection. The new name won’t hurt Barrie.”

Barrie MP Patrick Brown wished he had an opportunity to input his thoughts before a decision was made.

“Unfortunately, we have a tendency to not protect our history,” he said. “We are sharing a third of the cost, and we were not consulted on the name. Allandale speaks to our history.”

The new station includes a side-platform, heated shelters, a kiss-n-ride area, a pedestrian tunnel from the parking lot on Gowan Street and spots for Barrie Transit buses to park. Construction on the tunnel should begin this winter, followed up with the station work starting next spring.

jramsay@simcoe.com