Building contract signed for Childcare Centre

The contract for the building of the new Kilcullen Community Childcare & Education Centre was signed last night, writes Brian Byrne.

The building of the Centre will begin in September, and is expected to take around six months.

Kennycourt Construction was the selected bidder for the project, which has been under endeavour for more than a decade and was finally brought to fruition by the determination of a committed group of volunteers associated with the Naomh Bhride Community Playgroup.

At the signing of the building contract, which followed the completion of a vital funding compact with the County Kildare Leader Partnership, thanks were expressed to all those who had participated in helping the project to this stage of fruition.

In particular, KCCEC director Iseult O'Donoghue singled out the community in Kilcullen which had shown such strong support for the project over many years.

She also thanked project manager Martin Murphy for his handling of the very detailed implementation of the planning requirements for the Centre.

"We have now gone beyond the point of no return," said Orla O'Neill, who had led the revived project after it went out of time for a previous funding a number of years ago. She also complimented the work of local public representatives after it hit another problem a few months ago with the Department of the Environment.

"I want to say a huge thanks to everyone who was involved in the campaign to get Minister Phil Hogan to reverse his Department's initial decision on funding for the Childcare Centre. Your voice was valuable, and was heard."

Pictured above are (front) Iseult O'Donoghue of KCCEC and John Farrell of Kennycourt Construction, and (back) Orla O'Neill and Kate Steed of KCCEC, project manager Martin Murphy, and Mark Steed.