Boys and Girls Brigade's Camp Onaway

Miron’s team rebuilds Camp Onaway

By Brendan O'Brien

The children who take part in the Boys & Girls Brigade at Camp Onaway in Waupaca each summer can now expect much more than a few days of fun in the sun.

That's after the crew of Miron Construction built an 11,000-square-foot camp headquarters on the camp's 6.5-acre island in the middle of The Chain O' Lakes.

"We also needed a storm shelter because we really had nothing on the island to protect young people when we do have a problem," said Gregory Kippenhan, chairman of Miron and board member of the Boy & Girls Brigade Organization. "That was one of the driving forces.

"(The old building) was built in the early 1900s, and it was severely outdated, so we just couldn't fix anything anymore. That basically prompted the idea of a new building."

So Miron teamed with Neenah-based Pheifer Brothers Construction Co., which also has representatives on the Brigade's board, to solve the camp's infrastructure issues.

Along with storm shelters and a first-aid facility, the final product features much-needed amenities such as a modern kitchen, a central dining hall with a circular fireplace and living quarters for the staff.

But to build the facility, the two construction companies had to figure out how to work on an island. It was a major hurdle because the island offered little space for materials and supplies.

"Everything had to have a place to go," Kippenhan said. "Piles and piles of sand that we had dug out during the excavation had to be trucked off the island. If it was done by barge, it would have been very time-consuming."

So Pheifer Brothers helped save time by building a fully functional 350-foot bridge to the island and, in the process, solved some of the material-delivery issues the construction team faced. A staging area was created onshore to expedite materials and supplies to the island.

The materials included masonry for the basement and foundation wall, precast planks for the flooring and wood trestles for the outside of the building.

	Project Name: Boys and Girls Brigade's Camp Onaway Location: Waupaca Submitting Company: Miron Construction Co. Inc., Neenah General Contractor/Construction Manager: Miron Construction Co. Inc. Architect: Marathon Engineering, Appleton Engineer: Marathon Engineering Owner: Boys & Girls Brigade Organization Project Cost: $1.7 million Start Date: September 2002 Completion Date: May 2003

"Prior to knowing that we were going to have a bridge, we tried to design it with materials that we could get across on a barge from the mainland to the island," Kippenhan said. "Of course, we dressed it up from there and made a real rustic, North Woods environment with hardwood floors and knotty pine throughout the building."

Some of the island's existing buildings needed to be moved to make room for the new camp headquarters.

"We had to replace all of the athletic courts — all of the basketball, shuffleboard and racquetball courts," Kippenhan said. "They were totally demolished when we removed the buildings."