It’s going to cost more than anticipated, but the work to restore the Hollinger Grandstands is going ahead.
Tuesday, council approved the $657,900 project, which will be done by Praztek Construction.
Built in 1950, the future of the historic grandstands has been talked about for the past several years.
Director of community and development service Marc Jensen told council that most of the plywood and boards are in rough shape and will be replaced.
“Any wood that’s removed we’re replacing with the same type of wood to maintain the heritage aspect,” he said.
That means using a lot of spruce for the plywood and Douglas fir for the boards
He said the steel supporting the roof will also be sandblasted, repainted and reinforced in order to handle the snow loads. The structure will also be fully accessible.
“Whatever needs to be fixed is going to be fixed because at the end of the day end we’re going to end up with a pretty sound structure that should last us another 25 years,” he said.
“It’s 68 years old now, we haven’t put a lot of money into it. To properly maintain it, if I remember correctly, the engineer recommended somewhere between $20 and $30,000 a year in regular maintenance to keep that facility up to par.”
The restoration cost is higher than what was budgeted for the project this year.
According to the report, the 2018 budget allotted $499,500 for the project, which includes $149,850 from the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation (NOHFC).
To help cover the shortfall, $140,000 that was allocated for the Archie Dillon Sportsplex dehumidifier project will be used for the grandstands instead. The dehumidifier project is not being done this year because the only bid received was for $208,000, which is $67,000 more than what was budgeted.
Recently, EACOM committed $10,000 in funding for the grandstands as well. With those additional sources factored in, the shortfall is $8,400.
