What's Going On At The Judith Fisher Center
To the outside observer it may seem as if the health centre project has either lost its focus or become stalled because little work has taken place on the building since last summer. Well that’s not true. A lot has changed at the Judith Fisher (JFC) site since the “lock up” of the Health Centre. The health centre building is now rough plumbed, and completely locked up. The foundation that housed “Barb’s Bar” at the barbecue last summer now houses Barbara Green. She has moved into the elder cottage that her generous donation built.
There was a shift in the work focus over the winter and this spring. The top priority of the project team became providing the buildings with essential services: water, electricity, heat and septic waste disposal. A service building to house these services has long been a key component in the overall Judith Fisher Centre design. The service building is now at lock up too and, more importantly, functioning. From this central location each building on site will receive heat and electricity. The micro grid, which provides the electrical power, is now installed and fully operational. Without the service building it could not have been installed. The inverters and batteries are installed in the lower level and the PV array covers nearly the entire roof. The electrical system is working so well that the elder cottage is being asked to use electric heaters to put a bit of a load on the batteries. Excess power is being used to run heaters in the health centre and the service building to ready them for insulation and drywall.
The electrical system fell into place late last year when the Last Resort Society learned that, in addition to the $48,000 B.C. Remote Communities Implementation Program funding, donations of 13 kW of PV from Trina Solar Canada, racking materials from S-5 and batteries from Surrette Batteries were secured. The combination of the grant and equipment donations lowered the cost of the PV system by over $80,000. The government grant required that the system be substantially completed by March 31, 2015.
An absolutely amazing construction push took place during the winter – made possible by many volunteer heroes. The building was put up and made ready for the electrical installation by the beginning of March and the system was commissioned and running by the deadline. Please stop for a minute and consider how incredible it is that we live among so many people that volunteer their time for efforts such as this. Thank one – and if you are one of the volunteers and reading this, thank you.
Partial funding for the construction of the service building has come from the Lasqueti Internet Access Society (LIAS). One of the terms of the land donation for the JFC was that office space and utilities be provided for them. The upper level of the services building will provide office space for LIAS and storage facilities for JFC.
Wiring, insulation, drywall and siding for the health centre and the service building are the targets for this coming year. They are the critical path items that must be completed before the final finishing push – floors, paint, cabinets, fixtures, etc. – can take place. The Lasqueti Last Resort Society invites you to come by and visit the site and see the amazing progress that has been made. We, of course, also ask that you “dig deep” again and help us finish the next stage of construction. Contact Melinda Auerbach (250-333-8898) for more details about making a donation. Stay up to date with the project at www.judithfishercentre.com
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