THE house designed to help special needs kids learn skills to live independently is finally taking shape.
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After being stalled by Victorian government red tape for 18 months, the Belvoir Special School Life Skills House is making up for lost time.
Rotary Club of Belvoir-Wodonga president Trevor Pearce said the building was progressing well and on track to finish by the end of the financial year.
He said the slab was poured at the weekend and the walls and roof trusses would go up within a month.
“The Rotary clubs are ecstatic, the school is ecstatic and the kids are ecstatic that it’s rising out of the ground,” he said.
“The kids are looking through the fence every day to see the progress.”
The Life Skills House is being built on Belvoir Special School grounds to allow more than 200 students to learn independent living skills such as cooking and cleaning in a home setting.
Mr Pearce said scores of volunteers from the four Rotary clubs and Border businesses had supported the project.
He said volunteer tradesmen from Fletcher Plumbing & Co, Neil’s Pest Control, Colombera Construction (concreters), Grant’s Concreting and Bishop Electrical worked tirelessly this summer.
Begley’s Backyard, Baxter’s Concreting and the Joss Group donated materials for the slab preparation.
“We had 63 cubic metres of concrete donated to the project,” he said.
“Colombera Construction and Grant’s Concreting have literally given up the last four weekends to prepare the site and pour the slab.
“They worked the last four Saturdays in a row and there were some hot days in there.”
Mr Pearce said the project still needed a bricklayer.
“We had a bricklayer lined up but it took that long to get through the (government) approval process, that he’s since retired,” he said.
“We’d like to speak to anyone who can volunteer their time or at least quote on the project.”
Mr Pearce said Cobram-based Border Truss & Frame was donating labour to put up the walls and trusses supplied by Hyne Timber.
“We will be getting the walls and trusses up for nothing,” Mr Pearce said.
Mr Pearce said tradesmen and the wider community had rallied around the project.
“We’d hope to be finished by the end of June,” he said.
“But we’re very much dependent on when the volunteers can give us a hand.”
Bricklayers can contact Trevor Pearce on 0407 433 471 or Belvoir Special School.
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