Town of Davidson officials have found themselves caught between a rock and a hard place concerning what they should do about an old gas station on King Edward Street.

The owners of the former S. M. Gas and Convenience station near the north entrance to town are behind on their taxes, so Davidson council faced a decision at their monthly meeting May 20 about whether or not to advance with tax enforcement to take the title of the property. This may cost Davidson taxpayers thousands of dollars due to the need of having the ground tested for any contamination from a possibly leaking underground storage tank and then the eventual cost of the cleanup of the site if the concerns of town officials prove true.

“They owe us taxes and we have to get them back,” said Davidson councillor Tyler Alexander about council’s decision to go with tax enforcement. “We can’t let that person get away with not paying their taxes when we’re enforcing it on other people and that (is) the bottom line.”

As discussed at the May council meeting, town officials recently sought advice from the Law Office of Dellene Church on what they should do next as far as putting some pressure on the Saskatchewan Ministry of Environment to help them get the owners to get the ground tested and clean the site. The law office advised council the Ministry of Environment would not proceed with any extra pressure on the gas station owners due to results of precision leak tests of the storage tank previously undertaken by the owners determining it was not leaking.

This outcome leaves council with the problem of proceeding to take the title without having proper ground testing of the site first, which comes at a cost of around $10,000.

“It’s kind of a catch-22 situation,” said Davidson administrator Gary Edom. “We take the damn thing and you know you’re going to get caught and sure as heck it’s going to be polluted. There’s going to be something in the ground somewhere and it’s going to cost you thousands of dollars. And to sell it, (well) nobody will buy it. The bank won’t enable anybody to buy a service station property unless it’s been tested and everything is absolutely clear. They just don’t want anybody to take the responsibility.”

To read more please see the June 2 print edition of The Davidson Leader.