Asbestos prompts delay for Children's Discovery Museum

The opening of Saskatoon’s new Children’s Discovery Museum will be delayed so the city can get asbestos removed from the Mendel Art Gallery building.
 
Dave Hunchak, president of the Children’s Discovery Museum board, said they have been in discussions with the city on how to proceed since December 2015, when an inspection determined there was asbestos in the building.
 
He said the city has agreed to handle the asbestos remediation before the museum takes over the building. An administration report submitted to the planning, development and community services committee pegs the cost of that project at about $700,000.
 
Hunchak said they expect the work will push back the opening of the museum by 3 to 5 months.
 
“We were planning for the spring of 2018. So I think we’ll still be in 2018 by the looks of this, but probably later in the year,” he said.
 
Hunchak added that work can’t start until the current tenants complete their move to the new Remai Modern Art Gallery.
 
“The adults need to move out so the kids can move in,” he said with a chuckle. 
 
Once the asbestos is taken care of, both the city and the board have lists of renovations and fixes they want to do in the building.
 
The city has an estimated $1.5 million worth of items it needs to fix, including installing a new boiler and a new fire alarm system. On its end, the museum board has plans to spend about $2.5 million of its $10 million fundraising goal on renovations that include an elevator and new washrooms to make the building more accessible for wheelchairs and strollers. Hunchak said they also plan to add some new windows overlooking the river and new space for offices.
 
While the city will handle asbestos removal separately, a proposal headed to council is calling for all the other renovations to be combined into one project
 
If approved, the result would be similar to the arrangement that saw the former Gordie Howe Bowl refurbished ,with the Friends of the Bowl foundation taking the lead. In this case, the museum board would be in charge of the overall renovations, with the city also represented throughout the process.
 
Hunchak said the proposal makes sense, and will likely save both parties time and money.
 
“We can have the same teams in there working, instead of one team doing something and another team doing something completely seperate, we can integrate that,” he said.