Currently, the Cugnet Centre at the Weyburn Comp is temporarily inaccessible — due to construction delays and in particular flooring deficiencies in the gymnasium.
“There was a dip in the middle of the gym at the Cugnet Centre,” said Andy Dobson, facilities manager of the Southeast Cornerstone Public School Division. He said that the dip was 15 feet in width, five mm deep and it ran from the centre of the gym to the retractable seats.
“This dip was outside of the specified threshold, so the architect marked it as a deficiency,” said Dobson. In addition, there was also a hill on the west wall of the gymnasium floor.
One of the challenges was that Cornerstone had waited eight months for a plan to correct the problem. “We did have a promise to get it corrected over the summer … however the floor contractors only started to fix it at the start of August.”
Dobson said that the first “patch job” of the floor had flooring that was too light — and the architect rejected the job.
The second “patch job” of the flooring was also rejected by the architect because the wood was too dark. Dobson noted that since the only option for the school division was to use the current flooring during the 2015-16 school year — even though that floor has not been approved by the architect.
The patched floor is getting treatment and line painting so it can be used for school and community events until next summer.
It will be until the end of the month before the Cugnet Centre is opened again to the general public. Dobson said that their goal is to have it open for ABBAMania, which will be presented by the Weyburn Concert Series, on Tuesday, Sept. 29.
However, there is a lot of clean-up that will have to be completed once the floors are treated.
It will also be a wait before the ‘patch job’ is completed correctly. “We have no choice but to get the floor contractors back next July and August for another repair of the floor.”
Dobson noted that there was no way that the school division (as the owner of the Cugnet Centre) would be satisfied until the job was completed correctly. “We will do whatever we can to push them hard to finish this right.”
While deficiencies are expected during a renovation project — due to unforeseen conditions — this deficiency was unexpected since the Cugnet Centre was new construction. “We should not have had a deficiency of this magnitude.”
