BERWICK, N.S. – The Kings Mutual Century Centre expansion is nearly finished.
“We have a completion date of Aug. 31. I think that we’re going to be very, very close to that,” said John Nichols, chairman of the Kings Mutual Century Centre building committee.
“We’re going to have a beautiful building there.”
The $5-million Phase 2 project includes the addition of the Larsen Curling Centre, Willowdale Farm Fitness Centre and Eden Valley Wellness Centre.
“The fitness centre has lockers and showers. I think it’s going to be really nice and I think it’s going to be used a lot,” said Nichols.
“I think the curling club is going to attract provincial-level curling.”
Lindsay Construction of Dartmouth was awarded a tender in the amount of $4.24 million for the work that also entailed new dressing rooms and upgrades to the arena, as well as improvements to some other existing spaces within the facility. The sod-turning celebration marking the start of construction for Phase 2 was held Aug. 8, 2017.
“It’s going to become more of a community centre,” said Nichols, noting that the additions will appeal to people of all ages.
The wellness centre component will take a little longer to complete as a tenant must be secured to provide input regarding some finishing touches.
“We are talking to someone right now about leasing that area,” said Nichols.
The federal and provincial governments each contributed $1.6 million in funding for the project, while an additional $1.8 million was required from the community level.
“It’s a long process. It’s a big learning curve for everybody because we’re all volunteers but we had a lot of help along the way,” said Nichols.
“Before we went to the government we had $1.3 million in funding… so when we went there we had some legs to stand on.”
He’s thrilled to know that the hard work of everyone involved in bringing the project to fruition is about to pay off in spades.
“We couldn’t have done this without the support from everybody,” he said.
“The amount of volunteers and the amount of money that was received on an individual basis was tremendous.”
