Construction and fundraising efforts are both ramping up for the new Flin Flon Aqua Centre project. A sizeable donation came in for the project last month, walls for the building have partially gone up and a roof is planned to be put on the structure before Christmas.
Walls are starting to go up for the pool building, a key step in a construction process that has mostly been based on work at ground-level and below. Electrical work is beginning, some landscaping around the building itself has taken place and structural columns have been built. The roof will be the next big step.
“The last few weeks, we’ve got the outer area of the pool roughly landscaped. That’s been done. Some electrical work has been done. There’s been a CSTE placed [a customer service termination enclosure, a key piece of electrical equipment] and the cabling installed. That’s the main electrical hub for the building and the power feeds that go into the building - that’s been done,” said Mike Funk, the City’s facility maintenance coordinator and one of the leads on the pool project.
“We’ve got structural steel columns installed. The exterior walls have been erected and the wood… well, they’re wood. The rib and backbone of the roof structure has been put up - the next step will be the roofing itself going up.”
Walls going up are the first step to creating a building envelope, which City officials say is the key to continuing construction through the winter. The roof is scheduled to be put up later this month, allowing for temperature control inside and easier work conditions, outside of a harsh northern winter.
“The sheeting for the roof will be in, then the building will be closed in and heat will be applied. Through the Christmas holidays, we’ll have heat going in there to thaw the ice, the snow, warm up all the sand that’s been backfilled around everything - then they can start controlling the humidity in there and start doing prep work after the holidays,” said Funk.
“We will have a completely enclosed envelope so that the work can continue throughout the winter. We'll have the inside heated with construction heaters, so we will have a lot of interior work that we’ll still be making progress on throughout the entire winter season.”
Most of the project’s build has been built below ground, pouring foundations, getting the pool basin built and hooking up water intakes and outflows. More work on the concrete slab will take place once the envelope is completed - Funk said that work needs to take place in a specific temperature and humidity range to make sure the concrete pours and cures properly.
“A lot of things, they haven’t looked like there’s been a lot of progress done up to this point, but it’s the stuff you’re never going to see that has to be done before you start building anything large, before we see an actual physical building wrapped around it. Now that the building is taking shape, it’s starting to really look like something - it’s an exciting milestone for us,” said Funk.
“We’re happy with the progress. We’re on schedule and we’re on budget. Things are going extremely well and as expected.”
Fundraising
Progress isn’t just being made with the building itself - the fundraising campaign to cover part of the cost of the pool is also moving ahead.
Three recent donations to the project are helping cover the community contribution side of the project, raising almost $30,000 in total in recent weeks.
The largest of the three donations came in from the family of late City councillor Colleen McKee, who donated $25,000 in her name. Kent McKee, Colleen’s husband, officially presented the money during an information event held by the City on the project Nov. 21. The money donated was raised by the community after Colleen was diagnosed with cancer in 2020 - McKee died from the disease later in the year. During her time on city council, McKee was a driving force behind moving ahead with replacing the Aqua Centre and volunteered with the Aqua Centre Community Committee on several events to help raise money for the project.
An individual preferring to not be named made another donation, putting $1,000 into the coffers for the project. A third donation came courtesy of the Flin Flon Kinettes, who donated $500 to the pool project.
Much like other large-scale construction projects involving public or municipal money, the Aqua Centre project requires a certain portion of the cost to build the project to be raised through “community contributions” - donations from people or organizations in the area. The emergency department at Flin Flon General Hospital was partially financed in a similar way until it was opened in 2019.
Donations can be organized by contacting members of the Aqua Centre Community Committee.
