Septic upgrade pushes back Eagle Butte modernization

Eagle Butte High School’s modernization plans took a severe blow when Prairie Rose School Division secretary treasurer Ryan Boser revealed to trustees on Tuesday a new estimate to upgrade the school’s septic field was now projected at $1 million.

This is far beyond the $35,000 PRSD had initially projected for the upgrade when division submitted its costing to the provincial government for Eagle Butte’s modernization.

“(The Eagle Butte modernization) has been held up by the provincial government without approval to go forward due to this budgetary issue,” reported Boser. “With that million dollar estimate we don’t have approval to move ahead yet; so what we are doing is having our consultants looking into alternatives to lower the cost.”

Boser said as consultants work to come up with a solution, the school district will also be looking into the possibility of decoupling the septic field upgrade from the rest of the modernization project, if the provincial government approves.

“We want to treat this as a separate project so we can move this (modernization) forward,” confirmed Boser.

Superintendent Roger Clarke agreed that would be the ideal solution for the time being, but warned trustees it depended on whether or not the septic field upgrade was ultimately deemed a “code requirement” or not.

“If it isn’t a code requirement we can decouple it and do the rest of the project, and get approved for the project,” he confirmed. “We are trying to get definite answers on that before moving forward.”

Clarke stressed the septic field was not an immediate concern, having only seen flooding once in its history. He did not think it likely the rest of the modernization would be unduly impacted by dealing with the larger issues there if the septic field was not deemed a code requirement. PRSD would still be going forward with the immediate need for a $35,000 replacement of the current septic tank regardless, he confirmed.

PRSD is still aiming for substantial completion on the Eagle Butte High modernization by September 2018.

FILE PHOTO Eagle Butte High School may be facing some delays in its modernization as a new cost projection shows more than $1 million needed for its septic field upgrade. PRSD staff and trustees are considering options going forward.