Habitat for Humanity in Grand Forks is gearing up to build a seven-unit multiplex.
At the moment, the organization is in the midst of fundraising for the building, which will house single men who met this project’s specific requirements.
“It’s going to be a build green project,” says Rick Friesen, executive director of Habitat for Humanity Boundary Society. “We’re in a bunch of grant proposals right now.”
Friesen says they are doing whatever they can to raise money.
“We’ve got some local events going as well, like we do bake sales at the Arts Council Performance Series, so that’s one of them,” he says. “The guys set up a table and did a draw over at Overwaitea a couple weeks ago.”
They are trying to come up with some of new ideas for local fundraising and have a some people working on that.
Friesen says the initial plans have been going well.
“Our seven partners are going to be putting in at least 500 hours and I’ve got a group of local volunteers who have worked on Habitat homes in the past,” he says. “I’ve been getting emails from people pretty much all over Canada looking for something to do over the summer. “
Friesen is tentatively setting up a multi-interactive disciplinary meeting, where he will get specialists from different fields sitting together at the same table and they will put the criteria down regarding the material that they need on the blueprints.
This is done so that they don’t run into problems down the road.
“I’ve got a commitment already from a guy on the Hydronics council, because we’re doing hydronic in-slab heating in the floor,” he says, adding that he has confirmation from the City Works yard and he will also be getting the architect of the building and somebody from Fortis and Terasen Gas to come out.
“And I’ll get somebody from Boundary Truss, because they’ll design our trusses, get the local building inspector and a couple plumbers and electricians and we should be able to sort everything out that we need to.”
He says that’s tentatively set up for mid February.
“After that I want to jump at getting the blueprints done up and have a building permit in the hand, I’m hoping by the middle of April,” he says, after which point they will be able to start building.
The meeting will be sometime in February, he adds.
Friesen says they are looking for volunteers and donations.
“They can donate as well on our website. We’ve got an electronic link on there.”
For more information on Habitat visit the website at
www.habitatboundary.com, or to get information about volunteering in the area, call Rick Friesen at 250-442-2634 or email Habitat for Humanity at hfhboundary@huthus.com.