The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Three Winnipeg-based contracting companies have put in bids to renovate the science labs at Hapnot Collegiate. It's now up to the province's Public Schools Finance Board (PSFB) to decide which of Gardon Construction Ltd. (a base bid of $330,479), Kelsey Construction ($341,000) or Westland Construction Ltd. ($318,000) is awarded the tender. The PSFB, responsible for maintaining school facilities across the province, will foot the bill for the renovations. The Flin Flon School Division expects to know by late March or early April which company will get the contract. The work is expected to be completed over the summer and into the early fall. "The labs were designed for schools in the '60s and the curriculum has changed," Flin Flon Superintendent of Schools Blaine Veitch said in an interview last summer. Hapnot features four science labs, but Veitch said the bulk of the upgrade work will be done to two of the rooms. The chemistry lab and the general science lab will undergo extensive renovations, with new ceilings, flooring, cabinetry and desks to be installed. Several mechanical upgrades will take place as well, including the installation of a fume chamber and vented storage cabinet in the chemistry lab. The remaining two labs Ñ the physics lab and the biology lab Ñ will undergo a general facelift that Veitch hopes will include new cabinets and counters. The PSFB approved funding for upgrades to the labs last summer. The Hapnot labs haven't been upgraded since the school was built in the 1960s.
