Nearly six months after a sod-turning ceremony in Lorette, the Mayor of Tache expects construction will soon begin on the new Tache Community Centre.
It was October 29th when dignitaries broke ground on the $29.5 million project. Once complete, the new Tache Community Centre will include a new arena and skating rink, community library, seniors centre, multipurpose area, and canteen. It will go up immediately east of the existing community complex in Lorette.
Here we are, five and a half months later and Tache Mayor Armand Poirier says the site is still bare. He notes a hydro transformer box is on-site, but otherwise, there is little to see of what will someday be the community hub.
But just because very little physical work has been done, that does not mean that the project is not progressing. In fact, Poirier says there is work happening every day. He notes building a structure to house an arena, municipal library and senior centre involves many components, requiring a lot of arrangements.
"A lot of funding arrangements that need to be made, last minute arrangements, permits and so on and so forth," he explains. "There's several organizations of course that are involved with the last-minute arrangements to get this building off the ground."
Poirier says the building permit has been taken out and they are now approaching the stage where physical construction can commence.
"We expect to see some real physical action before the end of the month, meaning that we're going to see some machinery moving in and begin with the groundwork," says Poirier. "With the spring arriving, I really feel that the contractors are going to be making a lot of headway very quickly."
When dignitaries cut the ribbon in late October, the expectation was that this would be an 18-month build. Poirier says construction is still expected to take 18 months.
"From the information I'm getting, the contractors and Three Way Builders are still confident that they can meet a fall 2026 opening," says Poirier.
As mentioned, the build has an expected price tag of $29.5 million. Poirier says that number has not changed. However, he notes there is definitely some fear that costs could climb.
"It's not only a question of tariffs, it's threats of inflation and other things along that line that could result from these tariffs," notes Poirier. "For the most part, we feel that we have it under control."
The project is being funded with assistance from both the provincial and federal governments.
Meanwhile, Poirier says once the building is complete, any hurdles felt along the way will soon be forgotten. And, the Tache Mayor says they should be "off to the races" with construction any day now.