On February 16, The Merritt Youth and Family Society officially broke ground for the construction of a planned daycare centre located right along Quilchena Avenue. 

The site is fairly small but had a considerable amount of fill removed. 

 “We had to take out 70 loads of fill from our building in order to put the foundation in, that’s a fair bit of soil that was coming out.” says Leonora Fletcher, Executive Director of The Merritt Youth and Family Society.  

 Typically fill removed from projects such as this daycare would be discarded at a landfill site but considering the recent floods, Fletcher together with Kevin Fischer from Carefree Homes Decided to donate the fill to damaged properties in town. 

“We realized there were a lot of homes in Merritt that has excessive property damage,” says Fletcher.  “Some of them had pit holes and other sections of their land taken away due to the flood.”

 Through Facebook and word of mouth, The Merritt Youth and Family Society was able to connect with people who were interested in getting fill for their property. 

“We brought it right to their property with our dump trucks.” “If they had to buy the fill and truck it to their properties, it’s quite expensive.” 

 The 70 loads of fill was able to help 12 properties with three in the collective red zone, four around Voght Park, three on Voght Street, one on Government Avenue, and one on Garcia Street.

“It’s pretty disappointing,” says Evert Biddlecome as he describes how the flooding damaged his newly bought home along Pine Street. 

“Me and my wife have been working for 20 years and finally got a quarter-acre lot and now we only have two thirds of it left because the backyard has been wiped out. Our chicken house and our garden are totally gone.” 

Biddlecome was very grateful for the assistance hoping to  “repay the favor back one day.” 

“They helped me save at least a couple of thousand dollars with fill i used on the driveway beside the house going into the backyard.”

 The daycare will be a modular design with six configurable pieces being manufactured. New developments with the project is expected to come in between late March and early April. 

 For more information about the daycare, visit Merritt Youth and Family Society’s Facebook page or go to www.merrittfamilyresources.com 

Filling in the gaps

On February 16, The Merritt Youth and Family Resource Society (MYFRS) officially broke ground for the construction of a planned daycare centre located right along Quilchena Avenue. 

The site is fairly small but had a considerable amount of fill removed. 

 “We had to take out 70 loads of fill from our building in order to put the foundation in, that’s a fair bit of soil that was coming out,” said Leonora Fletcher, Executive Director of MYFRS

Typically fill removed from projects such as this daycare would be discarded at a landfill site but considering the recent floods, Fletcher, together with Kevin Fischer from Carefree Homes, decided to donate the fill to damaged properties in town. 

“We realized there were a lot of homes in Merritt that had excessive property damage,” said Fletcher.  

“Some of them had pit holes and other sections of their land taken away due to the flood.”

Through Facebook and word of mouth, the Society was able to connect with people who were interested in getting fill for their property. 

“We brought it right to their property with our dump trucks. If they had to buy the fill and truck it to their properties, it’s quite expensive.” 

The 70 loads of fill were able to help twelve properties, with three in the collective red zone, four around Voght Park, three on Voght Street, one on Government Avenue, and one on Garcia Street.

“It’s pretty disappointing,” said Evert Biddlecome as he describes how the flooding damaged his newly bought home along Pine Street. 

“Me and my wife have been working for 20 years and finally got a quarter-acre lot and now we only have two thirds of it left because the backyard has been wiped out. Our chicken house and our garden are totally gone.” 

Biddlecome was very grateful for the assistance, hoping to “repay the favor back one day.” 

“They helped me save at least a couple of thousand dollars with fill I used on the driveway beside the house going into the backyard.”

The daycare will be a modular design with six configurable pieces being manufactured. New development with the project is expected to come in between late March and early April. 

For more information about the daycare, visit Merritt Youth and Family Society’s Facebook page or go to www.merrittfamilyresources.com