A crane lifted a 363-kg HVAC unit to the roof of the Pathways Health Center for Children Thursday marking the latest update to the facility on Murphy Road in Sarnia that serves more than 3,700 children and youth each year.
A crane lifted a 363-kilogram HVAC unit to the roof of the Pathways Health Center for Children Thursday, marking the latest update to the Sarnia facility that serves more than 3,700 children and youth each year.
The new unit is part of a project to improve air quality at the centre.
“Pathways applied for an Ontario Trillium Foundation grant to install UV lighting in all the ductwork to kill pathogens in the air system for the entire facility,” said Tim Bechard with Pathways.
“That will help with destruction of COVID, measles, tuberculosis – any airborne pathogen.”
Pathways provides therapy and other services for children and youth with physical, developmental and communication needs.
“Our therapists have to work very closely with the clients,” Bechard said. “Because of the work they do, it’s not always possible to maintain two-metre separation.”
The air system improvements provide “another level of protection that we can offer” for clients, workers and visitors, he said.
As part of the $149,500 grant received from the provincial agency, Pathways also added a new rooftop HVAC unit for the centre’s pool area, Bechard said.
The Murphy Road building now has a total of nine HVAC units, he said.
“Originally, the change rooms were all serviced by one HVAC,” Bechard said. “Now we have them serviced by two so we’ve got better air flow in the change rooms which is a high traffic area.”
The project is expected to cost a total of $170,000 and should be completed in the coming days, Bechard said.
“Putting this HVAC on the roof was the last piece.”
Bechard said the center is “always looking for opportunities” to improve the site, and the Trillium Foundation has often been helpful.
The foundation, which is funded by the province, contributed a similar amount in 2020 for improvements to the centre’s indoor therapeutic pool.
“I just want to salute Pathways for the great work they do,” Sarnia-Lambton MPP Bob Bailey said Thursday.
He said the improvements will “make life a lot better for the staff and the volunteers, and of course the children that are here.”
Bailey praised the “foresight” of the Rotary Club of Sarnia and others who helped to establish Pathways years ago.
Bailey said he’s like many in the community in that members of his own family attended Pathways for services.
“We’ve all had the opportunity to experience the great work they do here,” the MPP said.
While attending the HVAC lift Thursday morning, Bailey also reminisced about his previous career as crane operator.
The work being completed now is another step on the centre’s “pandemic recovery” to restore all its activities and services impacted by COVID-19 and public-health restrictions, Pathways executive director Alison Morrison said in a statement.
She said Trillium funding is also being used for a study designed to explore operating efficiencies in the therapeutic aquatic area of the centre.
“This grant will assist Pathways Health Center for Children to rebuild and recover from impacts of COVID-19,” she said.
The center is “not quite up to full capacity as far as seeing children and families, but we’re getting very close,” said Karen McClintock, director of community services at Pathways.
“We also are currently struggling with recruitment,” she said. “We not at full staff complement yet but hoping, as soon as we can get everybody on board, we can try to get things back up to where it was pre-pandemic.”
Speech language pathologist jobs have been “hard to fill,” as well as physiotherapy and occupational therapy positions, McClintock said.
“It means bigger caseloads for the rest of the therapists and it means a little bit longer wait times. We’re certainly working to do our best to get those wait times down for families.”