New beginning for New Beginnings

Construction began in early September on the New Beginnings retail store and programming facilities in Gillett, and a snag developed almost immediately.

“We found some things that we weren’t expecting,” Oconto County Health and Human Services Director Mike Reimer told the Oconto County Board on Sept. 23. “We found some contaminated soil. We found some diesel fuel down in there, I think some car parts down there.”

The contractor had to go through a process of removing things and testing for contamination, Reimer said.

“It looks like about a $12,000 fix to pull the fill out and put clean fill in and do all the testing required to get through that stage of construction,” he said.

The 6,000-square-foot facility on West Park Street will be adjacent to the existing New View Industries campus. It is designed to house a retail store — replacing the existing store in Oconto Falls — as well as a computer lab, small group meeting rooms, a kitchen commons, multipurpose activity room and a counseling room, along with associated storage and other facilities.

Originally estimated as a $1.38 million project, after general contractor the Samuels Group reviewed the bids, it revised the cost to $1.732 million — including a total of $1.5 million for construction, $165,500 for engineering, $45,000 for furnishings and $20,000 for administration.

Ziese Construction, of Green Bay, was awarded the project for $1.477 million, which is being be paid from the county’s Community Development Block Grant account. The county had allocated $50,000 in matching funds and took the extra $350,000 from its federal American Rescue Funds allocation of $7.367 million.

The New Beginnings training program for at-risk youth and its accompanying retail store began 20 years ago in downtown Gillett and relocated in 2013 to its current site at 239 Van Buren St., Oconto Falls.

The new facility is expected to be ready in spring.