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LIIDLII KUE/FORT SIMPSON - Over a year since construction began on the new government building in Fort Simpson, tenants will finally be able to move in to their new home starting in mid november.

Construction on the project began in the summer of 2007 and was on schedule until the early months of 2008. Due to harsh winter weather conditions in January and February, construction slowed and postponed the project's completion date to the end of October, rather than the scheduled end-of-September date.

With construction a month and a half behind schedule, the $8-million new government building is expected to be completed by the end of the month. - Andrew Livingstone/NNSL photo

Scott Howard, manager in charge of the project, said there was no real set date for completion but gave a loose guess at a possible finish.

"When we first started construction, I estimated we could have it completed by the end of September," he said. "But there are always circumstances that arise unexpectedly."

Howard said finishing the project this soon would not have happened if they weren't using the design system they were.

"They design as you build so it lets us start building before all the drawings are complete," he said. "This system of design build has its advantages to fast-tracking the construction stages. If we were to wait for a full set of drawings to come we wouldn't have been able to have the building finished by this time."

Howard said they have set the substantial completion date for Oct. 27. Tenants will be able to start moving into the building around Nov. 15 as long as things progress as planned.

"They're just finishing up installing linoleum and sealing up the windows," he said. "There shouldn't be anything too serious to stop us. The siding won't be completed but it will start going on next week. The inside of the building will be ready for occupancy."

While tenants from Dehcho Hall wait to move into their spaces at the new building in the middle of November, the John Tsetso Memorial Library is still waiting for news as to when it will move.

The library will not be occupying space in the new building and the village council has been scrambling to find a new space for the library.

Tom Matus, senior administration officer for the village, said the library will move into the old village office, a space half the size of the library's current location. Matus said the target was to have the library moved in the first week of November since the heat in Dehcho Hall will be cut off in the middle of next month.

"I'm waiting for an engineer to give me another assessment on the floors and for a quote on a contractor in town to put in an access ramp," he said. "I'm hoping to have it resolved by the end of the month."

Head librarian Lorraine Ocko said she didn't know what the timeline was going to be for moving into the old village council offices and is concerned about the smaller space.

"It's going to be a lot smaller, probably about half of what we have now," she said. "There is not a lot of floor space and it's going to be rather tight.

"People are used to the openness of our current place. I have so many after-school children that depend on the library. How they're going to cope with the space in that little area, how I'm going to cope, I don't know. It's going to be a learning experience."