Spòrsnis shapes up

THE NEW community sports facility at Lionel School is progressing well and the site of its huge, red steel skeleton framed against our winter skies brings hope to the hearts of those of us who have so far failed to acheieve ‘peak fitness’.

The concrete foundations are all in place and the steel work is well on the way to being finished by the end of this month. The new facility will include £200,000 worth of renewables in the shape of two wind turbines on the machair behind the school and a ground source heat exchanger. The exchanger is known in the trade as a ‘slinky’ and consists of around 375 metres of coiled pipe buried under the ground. The pipe acts as a closed circuit, pumping water around the system. The water begins its journey at a temperature of 5º, comes back above ground level at 10º and is then fed into a compressor which reduces this large quantity of low temperature heat to a smalller quantity of higher temperature heat allowing it to reach the average 30-40º needed to operate the under floor heating system. As the turbines provide all the electricity needed to operate the slinky, it is hoped that the building’s heating sysytem will be totally self sufficient.

Site Manager Iain Donald Macdonald who gave fios a guided tour of the work in progress. He said,“We have a team of eight here, most of them Ness and West Side boys and we’ve been working away at the foundation stage with not much to show for our efforts – all the work being at or below ground level. But now the structure is up, you get a better feel for the building – and I have to say, its looking good.” The next phase will involve the block work walls and the constuction of the roof and for that, the team need good weather. Alec Murray told fios he was pleased with the job so far and had every hope of completing the project on time and on target.

Calum Iain Macleod, Spòrsnis chair, added, “We are absolutely delighted with the progress so far. Fundraising work will continue to ensure that the new building will be fully equiped when it opens in November 2005”

Spòrsnis Ltd

FUND RAISING for the spòrsnis community facility at Lionel School is continuing and the committee will shortly be exploring a number of options relating to the furnishing and equipping of the centre.

Following legal and financial advice, the committee has agreed that the existing voluntary organisation should be wound up and replaced by a company limited by guarantee. This offers a better structure for the organisation and ensures that members’ interests are protected.

The new company will have the same name as the existing voluntary body – Ness Sports and Recreation Association.

£10,000 spòrsnis donation

ANGUS JOHN GILLIES, who is well known to fios readers for his occasional letters from Canada, has remembered the community he was brought up in in a very tangible form with a donation of £10,000 to the spòrsnis project. His cheque was received on Saturday by spòrsnis treasurer Christina Maclean.

Angus John - a close friend of Christina’s late father Ruairidh Bàn Morrison - has agreed to his donation being acknowledged publicly in the “hope that it might encourage others to contribute.” fios readers may recall an earlier, £10,000 private donation to spòrsnis which it has now revealed was also from Angus John - making an incredible total donation of £20,000 towards the new community facility being built at Lionel.

Calum Iain Macleod, sporsnis chairman said,
"This is absolutely wonderful news. The whole community will, I am sure, join all of us involved in the spòrsnis project, in warmly thanking AngusJohn for his truly generous contributions".

Sitework starts at sporsnis but fundraising efforts continue

THE building of a state-of-theart community facility, adjacent to Lionel School, has now started with local contractor Alex Murray (Construction) Ltd screening off the site and commencing the groundworks.

The sporsnis committee has been involved in the project since June 1995 and a major milestone has now been reached with the help of a generous community and regional national and European funding agencies. However the fundraising committee and other volunteers are still very active to ensure that the new centre can be fitted out with top quality equipment.

Recently a family barbecue was held at the Eoropie Dunes park and a car treasure hunt organised to raise funds. More activities are planned throughout the coming months.

Treasure trail leads to Cross

CONGRATULATIONS to the winning team in Tuesday nights Spòrsnis fundraiser Treasure Trail.

Danda, his wife Marie, their daughter Donna and Marie’s sister Suzanne and brother John are the lucky winners of a fine commerorative plaque and a free
MOT courtesy of Galson Motors - (With Suzanne now a qualified driver, there is a fight on for the MOT).

The trail started at the Social Club with the first clue “He may be a small dot but we wish him well” which led to Dotag’s garden - ten clues later brought the trail to a close at the Sheriffs with the following clue “This man can
clothe you or arrest you”.

Nine cars took part in the event and the spòrsnis committee would like to thank them, and everyone who helped organise the event, for their efforts.

spòrsnis community quiz

Congratulations to the ‘fios’ team, pictured right, who won last Saturday’s spòrsnis Community Quiz - worthy champions, we feel!

Spòrsnis contract out to tender

AN IMPORTANT milestone in the Spòrsnis project was reached last Monday (5 April) with the delivery of the tender documents to all the interested contractors. The detailed plans and specifications were produced by the Comhairle’s Technical Services Consultancy along with Anderson Associates Architects, under the guidance of Neil Ferguson. It is
expected that tender documents will be returned by 30 April with an anticipated site start of Monday 31 May.

The facility is the largest capital project ever to come to Ness and features an 18 x 27 metre multi-purpose hall, a ten-pin bowling area, fitness suite and sauna, child care and play facilities and community learning and resource areas.

At the Spòrsnis AGM on 26 March, chairman Calum I Macleod thanked the Committee for their continuing hard work on the project and paid particular thanks to Carola Bell, Project Officer, and the other members of the Sporsnis/Design Team Working Group who had overseen the technical aspects of the project over the past few months. He paid tribute to officers at both Comhairle nan Eilean Siar and Iomairt nan Eilean Siar for their continuing support and to other main funders for getting the project to this stage. He paid particular thanks to the local community which had been so supportive over the years. On the financial front, over the past year, there had been individual anonymous donations of £10,000 and £5,000 as well as a donation of £2,000 from Ness Football Club. There had also been donations from various other charitable organisations.

He said: “We are now on the threshold of meeting the aspirations of both committee and community following the inaugural public meeting of sporsnis in June 1995. I am confident that, what started off that night as a dream will, over the next 18 months, become a reality and that we will have a first class, state-of-the-art facility.”

Because of financial constraints, fitting out of some of the spaces, including the bowling alley and the fitness suite are not currently included in the first building phase. It is however hoped that local fundraising will continue and will enable these facilities to be completed at the same time as the main contract. Several key fundraising events have already been planned for the coming weeks and months. The Chairman urged all members of the community to have one last push at fundraising, and to support future
events to ensure that all facilities be included on the opening day, hopefully in autumn 2005.

The following were elected to the Committee for the coming year:
Chairman – CI Macleod,
Vice-Chairman – DA Morrison,
Secretary – IG Macdonald,
Treasurer – C Maclean
Committee Members – I Gillies, N Thomson, P Murray, A Morrison, JM Macfarlane, KA Campbell, N Finlayson

The hard work and perseverance of the community pays off -

The building of the state-of-the-art spòrsnis community facility is moving ahead with momentum and work on the site is scheduled to start in just a few months. The overall design is now cast in stone and tender documents will go out by 26 March, with the selected contractor starting work at the Lionel School site on 31 May. Construction work is expected to last for 15 months.

Gordon Anderson of Gordon Anderson Associates, the Architect appointed by CNES, is now progressing the detail design, supported by a number of other professional companies. A small local working group comprising Carola Bell, Kenneth Angus Campbell and Norman Thomson has been appointed to work closely with CNES’s Design Team and the Architect over the coming weeks and during the tendering period.

The funding package for the £1.5 million building is in place, the most recent award amounting to £360K from HISTP. An additional sum of around £200,000 has also been secured for renewable energy measures which will result in much reduced running costs for the building. Further funding will be sought to complete the fitting out of some of the spaces such as ten-pin bowling, the health and fitness suite and soft-play area. The spòrsnis committee will shortly launch a new local fundraising drive with a dedicated team to lead the campaign.

“It is very exciting, after many years of work on this project, to know
that it is at last going to happen – it will be of enormous benefit to everyone in the community.” Calum Iain Macleod, spòrsnis Chairman

Phase One of the construction will include:
• Main Hall
• Team changing area
• Social area / Roller Bowl
• Ramps and Special-needs access and platform lift
• Minimal landscape works, drainage and car parking
• Reception / vestibule
• Storage
• All age fitness suite
• Seminar room / conference suite.
• Seminar room / music room with adjoining stores
• Sauna (including toilet / shower / changing)
• First aid / nappy changing area / small kitchen
• General office
• Mechanical & electrical plant area

Plus remodelling the existing school area by the provision of school wet weather area & storage at gym / stage level, the provision of sauna & toilets / changing by relocation of the Depute Head Teacher’s room.