Deal struck to turn old Long Lake school into Sudbury city park

A deal has been reached to turn an old Sudbury school into a city park and the bill largely won't be paid with city tax dollars, but with money donated by Sudburians.

City council will vote next week on a plan to buy the old Long Lake School and add the land to the neighbouring city park.

The bulk of the cost is being covered by The Clifford and Lily Fielding Charitable Foundation, started by the prominent Fielding family.

It is donating $245,000 towards the purchase of the property and $150,000 for the cost of demolishing the building, as long as the work is done by Ethier Sand and Gravel.

That would leave the total bill to the taxpayers at around $66,000.

Ward 9 city councillor Deb McIntosh helped broker the deal.

"There is an opportunity here and all over our city to pull together business leaders, community leaders, city officials, different levels of government, but not just looking for the government to do it for you," she said.

"There's a lot of interest in improving our community and working with city hall."

John Hamalainen lives nearby and was part of the Friends of Long Lake School who fought to keep it open.

He said he and many other neighbours assumed the property would be developed and is thrilled to see it stay in public hands.

"We lost a lot of battles trying to keep the school open, so it's nice to see we finally got one on our side of the scorecard," he said.