The Koochiching Economic Development Authority Board met at the Backus Community Center Wednesday, combining its monthly meeting with a tour of the facility, which is undergoing remodeling.
Backus Executive Director Ward Merrill gave the board and members of the community who had attended the meeting a tour of the building, including the dining room, kitchen and third floor spaces.
Merrill also showed the group where a four-stop elevator will be installed for access to all levels of the building.
The kitchen area is expected to be completed by Feb. 8, said Merrill. New appliances arrived Wednesday and Merrill said they would be installed quickly.
Students from St. Thomas Aquinas School are currently eating catered lunches, Merrill said, and the completion of the kitchen will allow hot lunches to be served to the students daily.
“They are a great bunch of kids to have in the building,” Merrill said of the St. Thomas students. “We’re thrilled to have students in the building. It really makes us feel good that the building is being used.”
The students will begin eating in the newly renovated dining room. He explained that the motif for the dining room, including new flooring and an archway between what used to be two school rooms, was inspired by the 1930s art deco style. The flooring was an attempt to replicate the terrazzo found in the building’s main hallway.
The tour continued to the third floor, where the visitors were able to see the spaces that will be occupied this spring by Northland Counseling Center and Rational Alternatives. Rational Alternatives will vacate its current space on the first floor of Backus for the west side of the third floor; and new tenant Northland Counseling will have space for its approximate 20 employees on the east side of the third floor. Merrill said that the space vacated by Rational Alternatives on the first floor will be available for a new tenant.
He expected the remodeling on the third floor to be completed between April 1 and May 1.
Merrill said that the total costs for the building’s renovations are near $1 million. Improving the third floor opens up almost 8,000 square feet of space that has remained unused for almost 20 years.
And Merrill also noted that most of the work being done in the building has been completed by local contractors. Remnants of the old school building, including lockers and black boards, will remain as reminders of the history that the building holds in the area.
Many members of the group taking the tour reminisced about school days spent in the building and were glad to see the building being used again.
