A little late this month, I’m afraid. After two successive Board meetings at which we were unable to get quorums, there are a lot of things on the back burner! But quite a lot in progress also.
The Hall is as busy as ever. The most recent highlight being the Kebe & Fast pop-up Asian décor sale, which attracted a fair number of people and had some exquisite rugs and linens for sale.
As you might expect, preparations for the annual Salmon BBQ are proceeding apace. Note Saturday, August 10th in your diaries! Heartfelt thanks to the many volunteers who make it possible and the supervising genius of Julie Stewart. The entertainment and beer garden will run from 5:00 pm until 7:00 pm. Salmon dinners are only $15 or salad plates are $7. Tickets are available at North Road Sports, Colleen’s, online, or email gichasalmonbbq@gmail.com for more information.
We have decided that the dishwasher/sanitizer in the Hall’s upstairs kitchen, which has done sterling duty over many years, is finally ready to be retired. In its place, we will be installing one that is significantly more user-friendly.
The Village Liquor Store will be donating 1% of its August sales to our Raising the Roof fund – thank you, Michael Brown. Tentative plans are being prepared for having Vanderleek Roofing proceed with the installation this fall i.e. before the rainy season! I repeat my thanks to the very many of you who have helped us with the necessary funding to match the RDN Community Works Grant.
The installation of new glass windows throughout the Hall continues and should be completely done by the end of the month. It’s a pleasant experience to be able to see through them. Again, our thanks to the Lions for yet another helping hand—the most recent of many.
New gutters have also been installed, so you won’t get dripped on anymore as you come and go! Speaking of gutters, we noticed, as they were going up, a very great deal of accumulated wind debris on the roof. We began looking around for someone who might be able to get up there and clean it up. Lo and behold (against my advice), a day or two later, Mike Peltzer and Yvonne Churchill brought over a very long ladder and cleaned the roof. A total of ten 5-gallon buckets of pine needles and a truckload of branches were collected! Thank you, Mike and Yvonne. Way beyond the call of duty.
After some discussion around the Board table, we have invited Steve Earle to meet with us at our September Board meeting to discuss the feasibility of harnessing solar power to reduce hydro costs at the Hall. My thanks to Anna Paletta for taking this initiative.
Finally, we are in the last stages of preparing a project proposal to the Regional District which, if all goes well, we hope may result in our becoming the Emergency Reception Centre for the South Island. There are some technical issues still to be resolved, but all-in-all we are optimistic. The RDN and our Regional Director have been very helpful as we move forward.
With summery good wishes to you all.
Peter Jones
President
Community Hall Association