by Nancy Gardiner
Northern News Services

NNSL (Sep 29/97) - A $274,000 design contract for a new school in Old Crow, Yukon, has been awarded to Ferguson Simek Clark of Yellowknife.

Tim Turner-Davis is the FSC project manager and he's now in the process of moving -- to oversee a new three-person Whitehorse office opening in October.

Design specifications for the Old Crow school building will be about 2,400 square metres, he says.

The school is being rebuilt after a fire destroyed the old one earlier in the year. There's been no conclusive report on what started the fire, but it's believed to be an electrical problem.

A winter road of 270 kilometres in length may be built to carry materials for the school construction and it's currently under discussion.

Workshops on the school's progress have been held with the Vuntut Gwitchin's local advisory committee. The Vuntut Gwitchin have settled their land claim.

According to Turner-Davis, there were two stages to the proposals' evaluation process -- the technical and the fee sides. His firm came in first on both. On the technical side, Charles McLaren's Whitehorse-based firm came in second. In the fee category, he was $64,000 higher.

Since 1976, more than 45 schools have been designed by Ferguson Simek Clark, a firm with extensive cold-climate experience, says Turner-Davis. His firm now operates in Yellowknife, Russia and Iqaluit. One of its projects was an air terminal building in Yakutsk, Russia.