Public Commons

Part of MacGregor Park Stimulus Funding 2009

MacGregor construction, June 1 2010 The fence is gone. The fascia boards have been removed along the roof line, and there is an interesting bit of concrete work at the entrance to the women's side. They had to deal with an unevenness of the ground, and they seem to have decided that they need to add a lip.

MacGregor construction, June 3 2010

From Christina Basan, construction coordinator: The MacGregor field house is an active construction site until the project is 100% complete and therefore the public will not be able to have access to the building until all areas of the project are complete. Due to safety and liability reasons we can not grant access to anyone other than the contractor on the site. As you are aware this is a designated and time sensitive RiNC project so we will not be able to push any components of the project into the fall. We thank you for you patients, interest and cooperation with this project and the willingness to work with us to juggle the spring/summer programming.

There was a site review last week to discuss the time line of the project and a new updated schedule will be issued shortly.

MacGregor construction, June 4 2010 From Jutta Mason: Thanks Christina. The many days of no work being done have now made the prospect of "juggling" the summer programming more likely. I understand that contractors for the city are often doing a lot of juggling themselves, i.e. that they usually have quite a few other projects on the go.

However the BIG puzzler here is the mystery of the locks. I heard that during this three-week delay, you or the contractor twice had to cut locks to get into the building, However, when recreation staff were summoned to check the locks, they found that they were merely the standard city padlocks, for which all Parks staff as well as the MacGregor Rec staff have the keys.

What went wrong here? Does Parks know?

MacGregor construction, June 12 2010 Still no sign of any work inside -- no window work, no floors, no doorway punched through from the boys side to the girls' side. Outside there's one new thing: the fascia boards have been nailed up along the roof line. The old wood that's removed is still in a pile at the back.

To Christina Basan, project coordinator, from Jutta Mason, June 14 2010

I note that you wrote before that staff/contractor had a site meeting on June 3 and the new schedule would be out any day -- is it now available?

The main thing is to have the use of the building so the wading pool can be opened on schedule. You mentioned that the work cannot be staggered so that some is done in the fall. Could that decision be revisited? Kristen tells me that the first scheduled park event is this Friday, with community people and carpentry students from the neighboring high school.

After that the program really gets rolling. Meantime, work on the site has been minimal since May 10. While no work is happening in the program section, there should be program access, as there would be in any community centre undergoing small improvements.

Please let us know if you can help this happen, thanks.

From Christina Basan to Recreation staff, June 14 2010:

Can you provide a date when the summer programming usually starts at MacGregor? and how often is the facility used? We are running into problems with the construction time line and I need to know what it may impact and how we can work with you and your programs.

From recreation staff to Christina Basan, June 16 2010

Here is the schedule:

- Kristen Farig, artist in residence, requires access to the storage area in men's changeroom area. She is temporarily using the school next door and can at any time move operations back. Her wrap up begins in the third week of June. So, by the 28th-30th, if the floors can be done, she can put back the cabinets to store her supplies.

- Basic pool operation resumes June 26th. Staff require washroom access all day. They also require a small area in the men's or woman's change room area to store things that won't fit in the smaller green boxes outside (brooms, etc..). They can take these items out of the building at 9am (mon-fri) and 11am (sat-sun) and return them at 6pm daily.

- Pool programming is also scheduled to resume as of June 26th. Staff will, however, need a week of prep time, to return supplies into the women's changeroom area (including the storage room) and would require access all day long.

These are just notes below on the items causing hold ups from an operation point of view:

The delay in ordering of doors and frames. As long as the outside doors are lockable, there is no issue from our end. I'm not sure i understand why the doors would be pulled off until new ones come in...? Still can always use just one washroom (the women's) for a while to keep the men's area secure.

Regarding the screening, if the windows remain without the outside screening for a portion of the summer, we don't anticipate much vandalism - so as long as the refurbished windows are put in, we can place cabinets up against them from the inside.

From Christina Basan to recreation staff, July 16 2010:

I just received an updated schedule on some items at MacGregor Park Fieldhouse.

1) Door Frames - They have been delivered to the site and installation will commence shortly. Door delivery is expected by July 27/10.

2) Flooring - Complete by July 23/10.

3) Painting - Commence next week, after installation of the door frames and completed after door installation, by Aug. 6/10.

4) new Washroom Privacy Partition - Installation during the week of July 26/10.

5) Window Screens - Installation during the week of July 26/10.

I am not pleased with the pace of construction, but we are going to try and get the washroom up and running on Monday July 19th. The door frames went in yesterday and finishing up today which will leave us with a safer condition to have the washrooms open. The activity/change rooms will remain closed until the doors arrive, floors are finished and the facility is painted. The windows and screens will be done in one or two days once the fabrication is complete and during installation parts of the building will need to be closed.

Let me know if you have any other concerns/questions.

June 29, 2010 gallery