New Center Construction a Community Effort
Marshfield Community Center is on-schedule as construction comes to a close. (Parks & Recreation staff is currently moving into the center, to re-open December 4.)
“There is a lot of activity going on as we speak to wrap things up,” said Dan Knoeck, City of Marshfield Public Works Director. “We will be on-budget, as well. I’d like to give credit to project manager Joe Dolezal at The Boson Company. He’s done an excellent job at helping us manage the budget.”
Overall, construction went smoothly and to-plan, but with any major construction projects, there will be challenges that arise.
“Any remodeling project of this size, you are going to have surprises,” said Knoeck. “For example, we had more asbestos to deal with than we anticipated and it took some effort to figure out the plan of attack there. Another problem was with the position of the HVAC ductwork, so we had to revise some ductwork plans. On a smaller scale, there were some rotten window frames on the west side and we ended up replacing some windows we had not originally planned to.”
Other issues included normal problems associated with older buildings, such as plumbing valves that needed replacing. However, these issues had fairly straightforward resolutions.
“Overall, it went well. We’ve had some really good contractors working on that, and great oversight by Boson Superintendent Troy Manlick,” said Knoeck. “We have had regular progress meetings to keep track of issues as they came up. It’s been a really good partnership with Boson. They really helped us through this process.”
Knoeck credits the work of many local companies for making this project a success, including Reigel Plumbing, McMillan Electric, R&R Flooring, Quality Roofing, and Priority Business Solutions, as well as several others from Central Wisconsin. He is excited for residents to see the space, as the project overall was a community effort.
“This whole project originated from a community-driven effort. I think people will be surprised at how nice this space is. The main room when you walk in is a very large meeting room, and there are endless opportunities for events and functions to be held there,” he said. “We really don’t have anything like this to compare to. I think the community is going to be pleasantly surprised at how functional and how nice a facility it is going to be.”
“For me, what’s most rewarding is to see a project come to conclusion and be put into use,” said Knoeck, who is already moving on to his next big project. “We don’t have much time to dwell on projects because we’re already moving onto the next one: this time, it’s the City Hall move.”
A ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new Community Center is scheduled for December 12 at 10:00am.
