Awarding an F in seismic studies

Prince Rupert school trustees are getting a little weary of the constant study sessions involved in the process of upgrading local schools in matters seismic. The situation has been at the front of the list for Prince Rupert for a while now, recently finding its way back to the top of the agenda.

The 2.7 million project for PRSS, was originally announced back in 2004, but with costs expected to rise on that original amount, there is a danger now that the project may fall between cracks.

This may not be all that bad, as with the costs rising each month, it might be better to just build a new school rather than renovate and upgrade the aging structure. At least that seems to be the suggestion coming out of last Tuesday’s school board meeting.

The Daily News filled in the details in the Thursday edition.

TRUSTEE FRUSTRATED ABOUT LACK OF SEISMIC ANSWERS
Russell Wiens complains about time wasted while waiting for upgrades
By Patrick Witwicki
The Daily News
Thursday, October 12, 2006

The seismic upgrade project at Prince Rupert Secondary School appears to be on shaky ground.

At the school board meeting Tuesday night, school trustee Russell Wiens wondered aloud when the district might find out just how much a seismic upgrade at PRSS would cost.

“When is this going to happen,” he said. “It seems like we’re doing study after study, but when are we going to know how much this will cost?”

The $2.7 million seismic upgrade project at PRSS was initially announced by the provincial government two years ago. But the problem appears to be that a full upgrade of PRSS could end up costing much more than the allotted $2.7 million, some of which has already been used for the phase one feasibility study.

The phase two study, costing $50,000, is next on the list, but Wiens wanted to know how much longer these studies would take.

“It would not make sense to just do part of PRSS, he said. “Someone needs to say ‘this is what we need to do to make this building solid.”

Dan Rodin, Secretary Treasurer for the school district, said that the only thing school board can do is wait and see.

“We can’t go forward any further until we get the cost in the final report,” he said.

“(Engineers) will come up and crawl around for three or four days, and them for the final stage, they’ll bring a compactor up. They’ll try to get most of the work done this winter.

“Then, we’ll go back to the ministry and say ‘here’s what the engineers say has to be done.”

Wiens said that he just hopes the process doesn’t take too much longer because the longer they wait, the more costs will sky-rocket.

“The sooner they tell us how much it’s going to cost, the sooner we can tell them to build us another school,” he said.