Heather Latter
The tender for a new classroom wing to be built at Donald Young School in Emo was awarded to Finn Way General Contractor Inc. of Thunder Bay after being approved by the Rainy River District School Board at its regular meeting last week.
“We’re off to the races now,” enthused Travis Enge, manager of plant operations and maintenance for the board.
“We’ve got both ministry and board approval for the tenders that were received in January,” he noted.
The original tender for the project went out in the fall and came in over budget.
So it was cancelled and changes made to the build schedule to reduce the cost—opting to build the new wing in the summer months rather than the winter.
Enge said he’s pleased to be working with Finn Way General Contractor Inc., which has been the contractor on other projects for the school board, including the building of the new Mine Centre School and the renovation of the old Robert Moore gymnasium area into the current Education Centre.
“So we’re familiar with them,” he remarked. “So we are engaging them in the contract right now.
“They will be working through the drawings, and getting their subcontractors to work on shop drawings and submittals to the architect,” he explained.
“We received a schedule with their tender and their preliminary schedule shows them on-site about the middle of May,” Enge added.
“They will establish construction fences, put on their trailer, start clearing the area, and working on getting ready.”
Enge expects they will break ground in June, closer to the end of the school year, with most of the work going on over the summer.
“It looks like from their tender schedule that the building should have a roof and windows by the end of August, beginning of September,” he noted.
The first pre-construction meeting is set for next month and the board will get a lot more details then.
“All the big stuff should be very close to, if not completed, by the time school starts,” Enge said.
He indicated with the exterior completed by the time the snow flies, the contractor will be able to spend the winter months working on the interior and have it ready for the spring.
“The current plan is once the new building is ready, we’ll move everything over from the old building,” Enge said, noting the board expects staff and students to be in the new wing for the 2017-18 school year.
“There are lots of systems that need to move over from the old building,” he explained. “And once we get that emptied out, they will start to demolish the old wing next summer.
“By the end of next summer, the old wing will be demolished.”
He added there is a tie-in between the new wing and the existing gym and remaining classroom—and all that will be completed next summer, as well.
Then once the contract is completed, a team will move on to the site plan, such as curbs, paving, and a playground.
“The playground reinvestment money that has been allocated for playgrounds, Donald Young is hanging on to theirs until the construction is done and then we’ll be revitalizing their playground, too,” Enge said.
He noted the school area soon will become a very busy place, but stressed safety is key.
“That’s what the fencing and defining the construction area is all for is to make sure students and staff are safely away from all that busy work,” he remarked.
Enge said the project has been a long time coming.
“The students and staff at Donald Young have been waiting a long time for a new building, and they are excited and I’m excited to be facilitating the building of this,” he enthused.
The kindergarten-Grade 8 school was deemed “prohibitive to repair” back in 2003 and has had a few updates done over the past decade.
After trustees voted against administration’s recommendation to consolidate Donald Young, Crossroads, and Sturgeon Creek schools back in February, 2014, it agreed to proceed with an investigation into the DYS renovation project.
It ultimately was decided a rebuild of the school’s main classroom wing was in its best interest.
Enge said the new wing will house seven classrooms, a new administration area, library, staff room, bathrooms, a special education room, a resource room, a speech therapy room, a circle room, and a mechanical and electrical room.
The section currently housing the gym and library will remain, with the library reverting back to a classroom.
The new wing will be built directly in front of the existing one.
“They’ve been very patient, and everyone has done the best they can in the building they have, but it’s time for renewal,” Enge said.
“It’s going to be great to get this project going and done and move everybody in.”
