Cathy Jacobs, the owner of Angels Cafe in north Edworthy Park (owned by the City of Calgary) was told by city representatives on Friday her lease with the city was being terminated to make way for construction on the new Bearspaw South Feeder main.
The City of Calgary is not very popular with Calgarians at the moment, for numerous reasons, but most recently because of another rupture of the old Bearspaw South Feeder main, so cancelling the popular cafe’s lease went over about as well as the feeder main break.
A firestorm of criticism aimed at the city was lit, particularly when Jacobs said she had just renewed her lease with the city for an additional five years.
On Tuesday morning, at city council’s meeting, Mayor Jeromy Farkas asked two top bureaucrats about the lease termination, asking “how is the administration going to be as proactive as possible when it comes to consultation with potentially affected business owners as well as local residents?”
In terms of the termination, the devil is in the details, as the lease agreement has a 30-day termination clause, which can be activated by either party, but more importantly, north Edworthy Park is going to be ground zero for much of the work on the new pipe, said CAO David Duckworth.