At last weeks Cypress Health Board Meeting it was announced that they will be reissuing tender documents for the construction and renovation of the new integrated facility in Leader.

The initial call for tenders had been cancelled in order to find cost reductions which has now been done as CEO of the Cypress Health Region, Beth Vachon explains.

" We did a lot more work and planning again. We came up with a new plan which was actually less costly by not building on to the old building so we have not lost any functionality of what it is we are trying to build but how we are building it will be a little different."

Vachon explains how the new facility will be incorporated with the current building.

"So what we have done is we will leave Long Term Care intact as it is but we will join it with a doorway into the new facility which means then we wont be trying to connect old systems and all that kind of thing and that actually reduced the cost of the project. The good news is that we are not losing any of the functionality that was designed into the clinical areas that will be in that part of the building but we will still be just right through the doors."

Vachon believes it will be a welcome sight for the community of Leader to see some construction activity happening in their town for this project.

All bids will be reviewed and evaluated by the Project Team before a contract is awarded.

It is hoped that work should begin in October and will take roughly 18 months to complete.