CAPE has received $600K from the province for a trio of repair and maintenance projects.--NEWS FILE PHOTO
mcranker@medicinehatnews.com@mocranker
The government of Alberta announced Tuesday that it would be giving CAPE School $600,000 to help with school repairs and maintenance.
The $600,000 comes from a $250-million infrastructure commitment made earlier this year by the province after receiving cash from the federal government.
“It’s a godsend,” said superintendent Teresa Di Ninno. “We modernized the building but three big issues remained. Our parking lot had some issues and drainage was one of them. Water was collecting and freezing in the winter.
“Our roofing was very old and needed to be dealt with. We needed to fix the leaking.
“The biggest one was the mechanical system in the building. It was the original building system and it was really hard for the company that maintains it to control the heating and cooling. In June it died completely.”
Di Ninno says the money comes at the perfect time.
“We would have been really hard pressed to fix these issues had these dollars not been forthcoming,” she said.
The school’s roof is done and was completed in June. The parking lot will be redone in the last week of September. As for the HVAC system, it is in progress.
“We started back at school today because the main unit that provides air circulation was received, installed and tested a couple of weeks ago,” she said. “We made sure we had circulating air and then we had to address the heat.
“With help from helpful people and help from Mother Nature, we have a working solution that allows us to be in the building with circulating air. We were worried about the heat.”
Di Ninno says it was a successful first day back and that all the new protocols have been adapted to by students and staff.
“It was a fantastic day and we were so happy to see everyone back in class,” she said.
