If you've seen old pianos being moved from the former Sir James Dunn Collegiate building in the past few days, here's why.
The former high school building is coming down and Aucto, an industrial liquidation company, has been taking bids online from those interested in purchasing items from the Dunn since March 30 and will continue to do so until April 12.
Items from the Dunn building shown on the company's auction page include equipment such as pumps, a drill press, a grinding machine, a photocopier, theatre seats, library shelves, chairs, lockers and artwork.
The old Dunn building itself (which closed as a high school in 2010), located at 1601 Wellington Street East, is set to be demolished after the building is emptied of its remaining contents.
The Algoma District School Board (ADSB) will retain ownership of the property after the building is demolished.
"The building was in our capital plan, and the property…we've held it for several years, and we've determined we do not need the building and the best course of action would be to demolish the building (and keep the property)," said Joe Santa Maria, ADSB superintendent of business, speaking to SooToday.
The decision to find a demolition company to tear the building down came in January, Santa Maria said.
"We were trying to obtain the funding for the demolition from the Ministry."
Colin's Haulage Inc. of Sudbury became the ADSB's demolition company of choice after the tendering process was complete.
The cost involved with the demolition is $705,000 Santa Maria said.
The auction company, Santa Maria said, has been hired by Colin's Haulage to clear the building of its contents.
The auction, Santa Maria said, comes after the board offered items from the building to other ADSB schools in Sault Ste. Marie and the Algoma region.
After that, the ADSB's physical plant department went over the items to see if any of them could be stored for possible future use.
"We've looked at all the memorabilia and things like that and all the documentation that would apply to the school and we've removed that as well (and preserved it)," Santa Maria said.
Now, the rest belongs to anyone who wants to buy it through Aucto.
It is not yet known when the actual demolition of the building will take place.
Santa Maria said it has not yet been decided by the ADSB as to what it will do with the land on which the Dunn currently stands.