Community college fencing off water tower

The Nova Scotia Community College Marconi campus is looking to construct a security fence around its water tower after vandalism to the tower and its adjacent treatment facility resulted in the shutdown of the system as a precaution earlier this year.

A 127-page tender document for the construction of a 2.4-metre-high galvanized steel chain link fence and concrete footings around the perimeter of the tower was issued last week. The tender closes July 20.

“After the vandalism took place we took an opportunity to review our operation and we just wanted to make some additional security features that would help prevent something like that from happening again,” Campus principal Fred Tilley said in an interview Monday.

“The tender documents would have been set based on the spec that was required to provide the best security possible for that facility.”

In April, classes were cancelled at Marconi campus and students at the nearby Cape Breton University were left without water and food services on after NSCC security discovered vandalism to the water tower and adjacent treatment facility.

Locks to the gates of both the water tower and the water treatment facility were damaged. Police indicated at the time there was no evidence of any entry into the building itself and nothing was stolen from the property.

The Marconi system provides water to the CBU campus.

Tilley said there is currently a fence around the water treatment facility but not the tower itself.

The precise timing of the work will depend on the contractor chosen as a result of the tender process, Tilley said. He added he doesn’t expect construction will take much time.

“When we receive the bids and we determine the length of time to supply and install, but I would certainly hope that it would be in place before the end of the summer,” he said.

Any work that can be done to mitigate the chance for future damages is well worth doing, Tilley said, noting the college takes its responsibilities around the water supply very seriously.

The tender document, which was prepared by consulting engineer CBCL Ltd., notes that the owner will occupy the premises during the entire construction period for execution of normal operations, and the winning contractor is expected to co-operate with Marconi in scheduling operations to minimize conflict and to facilitate usage.

“It’s somewhat removed from our actual building operation, so I would not expect any disruption at all,” Tilley said.

Tilley couldn’t say how much the fence is expected to cost.

The Marconi campus has about 1,200 students and about 160 staff.