Science Village on the verge of reality.

• Author: Stewart, Nick
• Position: SPECIAL REPORT: TIMMINS - Construction of science museums in Timmins

Despite missing the initial construction start date by nearly two years, officials for the long-discussed Science Village hold firm that the Timmins facility will be ready by as early as March.

Having recently acquired a site on the corner of Balsam Street South and Third Avenue in downtown Timmins, the non-profit Science Timmins is currently remodeling to convert the location into a kid-friendly regional science centre.

"We're out of the shell now," Antoine Garwah, the project's lead, says.

"We've been talking about it for the last two or three years and we're finally biting the bullet and jumping in head first. It was either we do something about it or drop it, and we're not dropping it."

Little progress has been seen since serious talks were held about the project in early 2005, when plans were in place to seek funding for the site in anticipation of work beginning in 2006 for a 2008 completion date.

However, Garwah says some scaling back of the project's original ambitions was necessary in light of its prohibitively high price tag, which was identified by consultants as reaching as much as $20 million.

Rather than continuing to wait for more funding, Science Timmins is leveraging $150,000 in seed money to kick off an initial stage of development for its vision. Additional phases of growth will be developed as more funding rolls in, with an eye on eventually achieving the $20 million target.

"We have to open it sometime, as people have...