With restoration pegged at $22 million, Clarington looking at other ways to preserve Camp 30 history

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Published October 29, 2024 at 4:42 pm

Cafeteria Building at Camp 30 in Bowmanville
The Cafeteria Building at the former POW facility - Camp 30 - in Bowmanville

The rising and as yet unknown costs of a full restoration of the Cafeteria Building – the largest remaining building of Bowmanville’s historic Camp 30 prisoner of war camp in what is now known as the Jury Lands – has Clarington seeking “alternative options” in preserving the structure.

The municipality has agreed to “consider the financial investment” required to stabilize the crumbling building at Monday’s council meeting and will consult with the Jury Lands Foundation and the local Heritage Committee to undertake a Heritage Impact Assessment to provide alternative means of commemorating the building.

Staff met with consultants and have submitted a grant application for stabilization and abatement for $4.5 million, a number that “could escalate” given the uncertainty of the actual state of the building.

The funds would not see the building usable and would only provide an opportunity to assess and provide a cost estimate for future phases of the project.

A full restoration, according to an engineering assessment completed in 2022 (and adjusted for 2024 dollars) is estimated at nearly $22 million.

Council was told Monday that if the stabilization project is included in the 2025 capital budget it would come from general funds – and result in a six per cent tax increase – as all available financing has been allocated to other priorities.

The project ranked third during the parks, recreation & culture master plan consultation process.

Councillors were also warned there may be additional financial risks down the road as there is currently no business plan or any future revenue stream identified.

The Jury Lands Foundation has requested a capital and operating lease with the town and more information will be known once “expectations” are known and fully vetted, according to a report authored by CAO Mary-Anne Dempster and Deputy CAO (Public Services) Lee-Ann Reck Lee-Ann Reck. With no budget as of right now, any work completed at the site goes on the books as an over-expenditure.

“Given the number of variables and unknowns with budget, anticipated cost escalations, the lack of identified future use and operational planning costs, staff’s advice is to proceed with a Heritage Impact Assessment to provide alternative paths to commemorating the site,” the report declared.

Clarington is collaborating with the Jury Lands Foundation, a not-for-profit organization, to “rejuvenate and conserve” the Cafeteria Building at Camp 30.

The Municipality’s vision is to repurpose the building using a process called ‘adaptive reuse,’ allowing the space to serve another function while conserving its history. Clarington has also negotiated an agreement with the landowners, Kaitlin Corporation and Fandor Homes, which included the transfer of ownership of the Cafeteria Building and includes plans for the transfer of the remaining heritage buildings (except the Triple Dorm) and large portions of the property that have been identified as environmentally sensitive.

The Municipality and the Foundation have also been tasked with fundraising and finding partners to protect the heritage of the site.

The Jury Lands area covers some 48 hectares of land from Concession Street East to the south, Lambs Road to the east, the Canadian Pacific Railway to the north, and the existing residential development to the west. The lands will see some low and medium density residential development and as many as 1,200 homes built under the proposal with limited commercial opportunities based on location and proximity to Lambs Road, which is a local corridor.

The former Camp 30 campus area within the ring road will be designated as a future municipal-wide park and the hope is the buildings themselves will eventually be refurbished, allowing residents to “walk in the footsteps of history,” according to the report from Council.

Camp 30 is the former Boys Training School and later Second World War prisoner of war camp. It initially opened in 1925 as a training school for delinquent boys. During the Second World War, it was used by the Allies as a PoW Camp for captured high-ranking German officers. It is the only known PoW Camp left in Canada, with original buildings dating back to that era, and was the site of the 1942 ‘Battle of Bowmanville,’ when several thousand prisoners revolted and barricaded themselves in the mess hall, armed with makeshift weapons like sticks and iron bars.

About 100 soldiers from a base in Kingston arrived on the scene armed with hockey sticks and high-pressure hoses to quell the riot.

One soldier suffered a skull fracture after being hit with a jar of jam, while two prisoners were injured, including one who was impaled with a bayonet.

In 2013, Camp 30 was designated as a National Historic Site and Clarington Council designated the site in 2018 under the Ontario Heritage Act.

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