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When the old TUCs school was about to be demolished surveyors checked out the property and I remember standing on the football field with the town foreman discussing the future of the great playing field across from which we had purchased our house here in Tisdale. Having that field across the street was a nice feature. It was a place to go for a walk, fly a kite and watch the neighbour give his mean looking white dog a real work out. I was clearly concerned about this playground becoming a residential area and the town foreman smiled and said; “Don’t worry Tim, not in our life time.”

After the old school was turned into rubble and hauled away it still hosted soccer and high school football but a new field was developed over beside the RECPlex and then the senior citizens decided that they did not want their new centre located on the north end of main street across from Wicks and the Gold Age Centre was developed on the East side of the property, mid way down the block. It was a nice project and well plan with a great drawing but that was all the new building took shape and the parking lot and surrounding park area’s original landscaping was never more than a drawing.

Shortly there after a row of houses formed along the Northwest corner of the the two block area, then another row on the south west side, then the Maple Ridge a large three story condominium on the Southeast corner very close to the former site of TUCs. Other houses and duplexes followed so that all that was left vacant was the Southwest corner.

On July 26th work began with preparations for a construction project. The town had mined 95th street to the point it was barely passable installing water and sewer services to the area. Unlike the duplexes, of which two are on 95th street, the new fourplex would be constructed on a foundation but without the usual piles. Apparently the area, even though it had often had an inch or two of surface water was quite dry and there was no need for concrete piles to sit the footings and foundation upon. Using foam forms the whole base support structure was quickly built with a slightly deeper crawl space than the duplexes on the block.

This is the equivalent of four small houses so it will take a lot of finishing work most of which has not begun. Some plumbing has been started and some of the electrical work has been installed. The doors and windows are ready to be fitted as the building is almost all vapour barrier wrapped. The shingles are piled up ready to be put on the newly sheeted roof this coming week.

This leaves one lot on the former TUCs field that only a few years ago it was thought that it would take a lifetime to see develop. That single lot will have a duplex. It is not known at this time if construction will begin on the duplex or if the work on it will be left until spring.

When the Maple Ridge was constructed there were plans by the developer to place a similar structure on the corner of 95th street but the development of the huge Caleb Village project made another large condominium uneconomic to develop in the time frame originally planned.

You can be a sidewalk superintendent and watch the evolution of this project by going through the more than fifty pictures on the pictures page of this story. If you look carefully you can see the date and time each photograph was taken.