In search of a way to build a new Welcome Center on the Nordic Heritage Center site, the Maine Winter Sports Club approached Dr. Gehrig Johnson, superintendent of SAD 1, and James Ouellette, the building trades instructor at the Presque Isle Regional Career and Technical Center (PIRCTC), to determine if the students of the building trades classes would be interested in tackling such a project.
The Nordic Heritage Sport Club would provide the design and the materials, while Ouellette and his building trades students would provide the expertise, the training and the labor to complete the 12-foot by 28-foot structure. The design was to include a 12-foot by 16-foot room for storage of rental skis, boots and poles during the winter schedule. A front 12-foot by 12-foot room with a warming pellet stove was to serve as an area to welcome visitors to the Nordic Heritage Center (NHC). Here they could warm themselves by the stove, talk about the trails with the NHC staff, purchase NHC logo merchandise, a cup of cocoa or just sit on the attached 6-foot by 28-foot porch and feel comfortable.
The building was constructed in two parts, the main building and porch, inside the building trades area of the PIRCTC. Construction started shortly after the beginning of the school year and progressed until the project was ready to be moved to the Nordic Heritage Center just off the Fort Fairfield road. Mike and Josh Martin of Earthworks, Inc. moved the building from the PIRCTC to the NHC site. Geary Bonville and crew were solicited to set the building in place on the site.
Ouellette and his students traveled from the PIRCTC to the site several times to attach the porch to the main building and to complete construction pieces that could only be done once the building was on site.
The NHC now has a beautiful Welcome Center at the cost of materials only. The building trades students received experience building an actual large scale construction project and pride in helping the community at no expense to the taxpayers.
“On behalf of the Nordic Heritage Center, Maine Winter Sports Center, and the Nordic Heritage Sport Club, a hearty thank you to SAD 1 for taking on this project and to Mr. Ouellette and all the young men of his building trades classes for making a Welcome Center dream come true. The general public is always invited to drop by, say hello, ski the ski trails, bike the bike trails or wander through for some ‘geocache’,” said Mike MacPherson, chief of technology for the Nordic Heritage Sport Club.