The Grande Prairie Catholic School District will open its new bus maintenance facility at the Grande Prairie Airport. It has purchased a 15,000 square foot building and three acres of land for the project.
Back in March, the school district first announced plans to build a new facility in an industrial park facing 97 Avenue, but Board Chair Michael Ouellette says that became too expensive.
“We were looking at building a brand new 8,500 square foot building and the tenders came in at around $3 million to build it and it was on city land so we would never own the land. We went out to the market to see what was available and we were almost able to double our space for the same amount of money.”
Fifteen staff members are on tap to move into the facility which cost $2.9 million. It will include garage space for bus and equipment maintenance as well as bus storage. Currently, the district is renting a space that Ouellette says was becoming too small and costly for them.
“We had outgrown the space that we were in; it was actually becoming unsafe for our people to be in there because it was getting so crowded. We also looked at the rent that we were paying and the increases and we had to look at a different way.”
“By purchasing this building it’s going to save us money and we’re going to own the building and the property,” he adds.
Superintendent of Schools Karl Germann says the district takes possession of the building on November 1st and he is hoping to have things moved in by Christmas of this year.