Apple Dome a big build

BY SARA KEDDY

Kings County Register

A local bidder will build Berwick’s Apple Dome.

Roscoe Construction of Cambridge’s $11.4 million proposal for the tilt-up arena and community room will make up the first phase of the long-awaited Kings Mutual Century Centre. “We’ve already met with them, and they hope to be on site next week,” says Apple Dome chairman George Moody.

Roscoe had the lowest of eight bids opened June 11, evaluated by the committee with the help of engineering and architectural consultants working with the project. Moody says, while Roscoe and many of its sub-contractors are local, “low bid is the one that counts.”

The Roscoe price is higher than what the committee was hoping for at this stage but, Moody says, once future partners - the curling club, the town’s backing of a pool or library, and others - come on board, the Apple Dome “wants to go back just one more time” to provincial and federal funding sources to build further phases.

In the meantime, construction will be slow going through 2009, with the tilt-up work likely raised early in 2010 - when people will really get an idea of what the complex will look like. Moody says the committee is making daily decisions, including some already major modifications to drop arena air conditioning and alter footing design to control costs and direct construction.

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