OTTAWA — The Royal Military College of Canada, one of the country’s premier training schools for young officers, will run up a tab of $415,000 to renovate the bar in its senior staff mess.

Contract details posted to a government website Tuesday invite tenders for an overhaul to be completed by April, 2010.

Maj. Julia Atherley, RMC’s engineering officer, said the work is among a number of upgrades to the 50-year-old building, which also includes a cafeteria and meeting rooms.

“It’s a place where people gather for important events,” Atherley said. “I was there when some aboriginal members received their commissioning scrolls, things like that.”

“It just happened to be that section of the building that has stepped up the priority ladder to finally get to the top.”

The renovation includes removing a wagon-wheel chandelier and installing two new ones, adding new track lighting, and removing a propeller bell and plaques and ceiling fan, as well as a dumbwaiter. Steel stairs and railings into the basement will be replaced “to provide proper fire egress from the building,” she said. Wall panelling will be removed and walls repainted.

“Due to age, the interior finishes of the rooms had become worn and dilapidated and therefore these will be replaced,” Atherley said in an e-mail to Sun Media.

As well, there is still asbestos insulation around some pipes, which will be removed, she said.

The senior mess area contains two separate bar-serving areas, ostensibly for officers and non-commissioned members. The area is used for social and academic events and RMC even rents it out for weddings. The separate bars will be melded into one larger area.

The bar in the mess building includes a breathtaking view of Navy Bay, but the building foundation also leaks. While the tender documents include specification for “bar nosing from a single piece of solid oak,” new drapery and a foot rail of brass tubing, Atherley said planners have tried to keep costs down.

“We have chosen inexpensive finishes such as carpet and vinyl flooring, laminate countertops and a prefabricated millwork rather than custom-made and painted wall finishes,” she said.

In addition to the bar area expenditure, RMC has completed or planned building repairs ranging from the sewage system to the kitchen’s walk-in freezer to electrical system upgrades of the $30-million building.

“The project title is perhaps misleading,” said Atherley.

christina.spencer@sunmedia.ca