The new St. Mary's College. So far, so good

The public gathered at St. Paul Catholic School Tuesday night to voice their opinions on the new St. Mary’s College set to be built at Pine Street and Second Line East.

As reported earlier by SooToday.com, construction of the new school, designed by Franco Pastore of Sault engineering and architecture firm EPOH, is scheduled to begin in summer 2013 in time for a fall 2015 opening for Huron Superior Catholic District School Board students.

HSCDSB staff, students, parents and the general public were at last night’s meeting, held on Dablon Street, a stone’s throw from where the new St. Mary’s will be, to look at architectural drawings depicting the new school’s appearance.

“I think it looks wonderful,” said Huron Superior Board carpenter John Calcafuoco. “I like the design, I like the way its going to be built on the hill on Second Line East, it’s going to look really nice for people to look at as they’re driving up the hill. I really like the layout inside, and all the glass.”

“It’ll be another nice building for Sault Ste. Marie, to go along with the Essar Centre, the Sault College addition, and our new Holy Cross School,” Calcafuoco added.

Retired Algoma Steel management official Garry DeCourcy, who attended the original St. Mary’s College in the 1950s, said he was chiefly concerned if the new building would be energy efficient, but seemed generally satisfied with the architectural plans.

“Overall, its very nice,” DeCourcy felt.
 
On an interesting side note, DeCourcy told us: “My one concern today is that schools are too big. When I went to St. Mary’s years ago, sports was a real key part of my education. I really think they should have two teams in everything, two hockey teams, two basketball teams, football and soccer.”
 
“Sports brings people along in the educational system," he continued. "Because of larger numbers of students in high school now, if there were two teams in everything, that would give kids that are just on the edge of making one team to make the other team. It would be a lot better for everybody.”

Resident Robert Rattle said he was concerned about the effect the new St. Mary’s would have on the volume of traffic in the area.

“At this particular site, the road that comes out to Old Garden River Road is flowing traffic to the community," he said. "There will be people using it for access to the school and that of course is of benefit for them, but I’m concerned it will also be used as an opportunity for cut-through traffic by others in the mornings and afternoons.”
 
“Currently the models seem to indicate a 10 percent increase in traffic on Old Garden River Road itself, that would add to traffic along Terrance Avenue from Old Garden River Road, at times of day when there are elementary school children on a road with a blind corner, with no sidewalk,” Rattle told us. “I think there’s a definite potential for a problem here, yes.”