NORWICH – As part of an ongoing partnership between DCMO BOCES and the City of Norwich, students in the BOCES carpentry and building construction program have been working on the city owned property on 49 Front St. since fall 2010 and continue to make the area brighter.
The project comes at a minimal cost to the city. Paying only for building supplies and some specialized services while labor comes free from BOCES students, city officials plan to sell the house for the amount they invested without seeking a profit. The initial plan was to have a buyer by 2011, but with the house currently too far from completion, hopes are to sell the property by the end of 2012.
Kent Rubottom, instructor of the program, said the arrangement has been financially beneficial for the city, which gains from the free labor, but has been even more beneficial for his students, who gain the training and skills needed to make them more employable.
“If they learn problem solving and to follow written and verbal directions then they can really see an advantage. They’re tremendous skills that are transferable,” Rubottom said.
The previous house that stood on the property was unsightly and burned out and went untouched for five years before being demolished with the intent to rebuild using funds from the Restore New York Grant in the summer of 2008. “It was one of the big eyesores in the area,” said Codes Enforcement Officer Jason Lawrence.
“We partnered with BOCES not just for help with the property, but also to educate,” Lawrence said. “Very seldom do students get to do a two-story house and do it on site,” he said. Usually, students in the building trades program build modular homes on the BOCES campus.
While some residents have criticized the amount of time taken to complete the three-bedroom home, Lawrence and Rubottom agree it’s difficult to finish quickly when students are on site for a short time each day – two groups of students work in two-hour increments each day and they learn how to do the work as they progress. “They have to start someplace,” said Lawrence.
“It’s hard to tell if it will be done this year,” said Rubottom. “Building is a sequential process,” he said, noting that there is also a wave of new students working on the house this year. “Hopefully contractors don’t look at it and say ‘I could have built that’.”
Licensed individuals will be hired to work with students on the electrical, plumbing and heating of the house in the coming months and a specialized worker will finish the drywall inside. The project has stayed on budget thus far, said Lawrence. When completed, the house will be highly efficient, built to the same standards as three other properties rehabilitated through the Restore New York Grant.
Students in the BOCES carpentry and building construction program will begin work on another modular home beginning next year. For more information regarding the program and the homes built at BOCES, contact Building Principal Judith McCann at the Chenango Campus at 335-1242.