Rain, rain, go away come again some time around May.That variation on the popular children's song might soon become the theme of the Spectra Place construction committee. Rain is continuing to hamper work on the facility, setting the construction schedule back six weeks.Initially, Spectra Place was expected to open in January. However, the near record rainfall that has descended upon Saskatchewan this year has likely pushed that opening further into 2011."They are still six weeks behind and it's looking like the end of January or mid-February when it gets turned over to us," said city manager Jim Puffalt who is also a member of the project committee."(Graham Construction) had a good meeting with all the sub-trades and they are all on the same page with regards to finishing so they are fairly confident they can be done by the end of January."Although the main arena structure has been closed in for a few months, the seemingly endless rainfall has caused numerous problems in the area which will eventually become the lobby. Because it is not yet covered, the lobby area became a soupy mess which prevented work from commencing. "They couldn't get in there so that stopped work right there, but they continued to try and get in there so that cost us money," said Puffalt who noted the rain has also caused a financial hit as an estimated $240,000 has been stripped from the project's contingency, due to issues arising from all the water."When it rained water poured into the bottom of the facility so they had to spend time pumping out all that water and repairing anything that happened from that. There was a $25,000 bill from some electrical equipment that had already been in. "They've had to do de-watering, they had to bring in some mats so they could try and move some equipment around."On the positive side, Puffalt noted that with many of the water-related issues behind them, work is proceeding at a good pace. Some of the structure in the lobby approach area has been erected and a handful of the wooden beams have been put in place while work on the main lobby is also taking place. The new arts and crafts room, which is in the forecourt of the Souris Valley Aquatic and Leisure Centre, is expected to be completed in the next few weeks.Puffalt added that renovations on the weight room in the leisure centre have also commenced. A little-known aspect of the overall project, the weight room will be significantly expanded, adding some much need space to the cramped, but popular, facility."Right now our clientele are fairly jammed in there," said Pufffalt. "We have lots of equipment and lots of customers. I'm not sure we are adding equipment, but we will have more room for the (current) equipment."The best part is that we actually make money off of that area so we are pretty pumped."
