May 11, 2011
Board to tear down
Keys building
by Terry Myers
The Renfrew County District School Board has announced that it plans to
tear down the former Keys School building.
The school board said the building would be demolished to make “more
playground space” for the new consolidated Kindergarten to Grade 12
school slated to open in the current Mackenzie High School this
September.
The former Keys building is currently occupied by Atomic Energy of
Canada Ltd under a five-year lease with the school board.
The board said the building will be torn down next January, after
AECL's lease expires.
The school board made the announcement in a “media release” posted on
its website.
“RCDSB is committed to the creation of a first class facility on the
Mackenzie campus,” board chair Dave Shields said in the release.
“And while this decision will delay the playground construction, the
final outcome will be well worth the wait.”
The former Keys School was closed in September 2006 following the first
round of school consolidation in Deep River.
AECL took over the building in 2007.
Pat Quinn, manager of site and community affairs for AECL at Chalk
River, said approximately 90 employees currently work out of the Keys
building.
The company's site planning department is looking at options to
relocate those employees, he said.
“That's something they will have to come to grips with in the near
future.”
AECL has faced a space crunch at Chalk River in recent years as the
number of employees has risen and older buildings on the plant site
have been decommissioned.
In addition to the Keys building, AECL also has employees in town at
the JL Gray Engineering Centre, the former A&P building on Ridge
Road, and the old Village Pharmacy at the corner of Ridge and Champlain.
In its release, the school board said the decision to demolish the Keys
building “will allow the board to develop the Keys property into a
first-class playground space for the Mackenzie Community School.”
“In addition, the demolition of the old Keys building will provide
safer transportation routes, improve the site lines for supervision and
better access to the Mackenzie Community School campus from the west
side of town.”
The school board withdrew plans to build a new bus lane from Brockhouse
Way to the west side of Mackenzie in December after a number of parents
raised concerns about the plan, including traffic safety and the size
of the elementary playground for the new school.
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