One of the newest murals to be unveiled in High River is falling apart.

Parks Planning Supervisor Kim Unger has told council the mural on the Highwood Printing building actually started deteriorating right away.

"Within a week of the mural being unveiled the mural suffered water damage because it wasn't properly sealed," she says. "The artist did come back on several occasions after that to try and fix the damage, but the damage is beyond repair."

An art conservator was brought in, determining the mural may only last another five years, while normally they last about 20 years.

A series of options were presented to council.

"One of the options was to have the artist redo the work on an appropriate backing, another option was to close the contract and accept it for what it is and the mural suffered a reduced lifetime so to accept that and of course there are financial questions and legal questions surrounding all these things, and these things remain to be determined," Unger says.

There was concern that the building could be damaged if the mural was taken down and the Town would be on the hook to make the necessary repairs.

The artist received $7,600 on the $30,000 contract and has been told the Town plans to move forward without paying more.

The $30,000 came from the Calgary Foundation and they'll be approached to see if another artist can be secured to do another mural.

Unger stressed the committee that worked on getting the two newest murals, the other is on the west side of the Servus Credit Union, did a great job.

She says they've learned a lot during the process and will take those lessons to help with future projects.