While most people have heard the horror stories when it came to the top floor of the Town-owned Ranger Park building, you wouldn’t see the evidence now, Recreation, Parks and Culture Director Andrew Hillaby said.
The top floor of the building has remained virtually unused since the building was given to the town by the province of B.C. as it was in pretty rough condition, he said, and declared unsafe by Fire Chief Keith Stecko.
But thanks to a partnership with the Town of Smithers, Northwest Community College and School District 54, the floor has seen a complete retrofit these last few months through the ACE-IT program.
Utilizing $20,000 from the Town, high school students began learning the trade ground up, so to speak, from certified NWCC instructors, demolishing the office space that was once upstairs, creating room for three new classrooms that the community can use.
“It’s been going really good and it’s been a great learning experience,” Grade 12 student Scott Mitchinson said.
He’s always been interested in the carpentry trade, Mitchinson said, so being able to take this while in high school has been invaluable for him, who was thrilled with the challenge and opportunity the program provided him.
“We’ve learned pretty much everything, to build right up from the ground,” Mitchinson said.
The course is one designed to teach the students up from knowing nothing to framing and foundation work, Steve Kern, NWCC instructor said. The course included the students becoming certified for all the required safety tickets: First Aid, Fall Protection and WHIMIS included.
“We took them from no knowledge to how to build a wall,” Kern said. “At the end of this class they can go to a job site and know how to use all the tools. They’ll have all that knowledge.”
He was one of three instructors who got the students up to where they are now. They’ll need another carpentry class in before the dry walling and other finishing touches can be done, Hillaby said, who hopes to see the entire project completed in one year. This does depend on more funding being provided, he noted, which will depend on the town’s budget.
The hands-on experience “helped out a fair bit,” Mitchinson said, who plans to take what he’s learned to help get his journeyman ticket.
Of the students involved, about half said they were interested in following this as a career, while the other half were simply in it for the experience.
Jon Goalder, who’s the career and education coordinator for SD54, says projects like these are an amazing opportunity for the kids — not only do they provide real-life experiences but they’re also good for those students who don’t get the normal academic curriculum.
“That is the whole idea … giving people the skills to move forward in their lives,” Goalder said. “I look forward to give the students an opportunity they wouldn’t otherwise have.”
It’s an excellent idea, Mayor Cress Farrow said, one that allowed the Town to update one of its buildings at a more reasonable cost and to provide the opportunity to tomorrow’s tradespersons.