After going a decade without a green to play on, the Sunshine Coast Lawn Bowling Club is asking the District of Sechelt to come through with a replacement venue.
Appearing before council last week, club president Katie Caple urged Mayor Bruce Milne and council to “take the opportunity to right a wrong” by providing the club with a new green on public land.
“I believe that the District of Sechelt has a moral obligation, for sure, and possibly a legal obligation as well, to see the reconstruction of a lawn bowling green in a first-class manner in Sechelt,” Caple said at the Feb. 18 regular council meeting.
The cost, she said, would range from about $200,000 to $300,000, “depending on where it’s built and who builds it and how much volunteer labour and materials are offered up.”
The club’s original green was built in 1993 on the grounds of the Sechelt Golf and Country Club, north of the clubhouse on district lot 1646. The District leased the Crown land from the province and subleased it to the golf club, and one of the conditions was a requirement for the golf club to provide a bowling green.
In 2005, however, the golf club owners of the day destroyed the green to make room for a “play and stay” hotel that ultimately was not built.
In its 11 seasons, Caple said, the lawn bowling club counted between 40 and 92 local members at a given time and drew visiting players from clubs in North Vancouver, West Vancouver and Powell River.
Even after 10 years without a green, she said, 28 members are still signed up, paying a nominal annual fee of $20 each.
The club’s equipment, originally stored by members, was moved to a District public works storage building in March 2014.
“In fact, stored in the public works yard there is enough equipment — including benches, mats, rakes, bowls, jacks and scoreboards — to equip an eight-rink bowling green and begin play tomorrow,” Caple said. “To say nothing of the marquee [a large tent], which is also waiting there.”
Caple offered to provide her substantial documentation to the District and said she did not want to dwell on past disappointments.
“Over the years since 2005 when the green was destroyed, I could say that I have had promises made to me broken. I could say that I’ve been fobbed off. I could say that I’ve been lied to, been bullied and, not least, cheated of 10 years of lawn bowling,” she said.
“But instead I am choosing to visualize a reconstructed lawn bowling green in Sechelt where citizens can play lawn bowls. I’m choosing to visualize a supportive, right-thinking mayor and councillors who set a course to replace and reconstruct the Sechelt lawn bowling green for the recreational benefit of Sechelt citizens and their friends and neighbours on the Sunshine Coast.”
In response, Milne said the request would go before council’s public works, parks and environment committee within a couple of months, to “see if we can’t, after a decade or so, give your members a place to meet.”
Interviewed after the meeting, Caple said the club did not have a specific location in mind for a new green, though the former location at the golf course “would be splendid.”
Ideally, she said, the site would be on a public transit route and connected to an amenity such as a golf course, which could be contracted for some of the maintenance work.
“If it can’t be [at the former site], consideration of those kinds of things should be taken,” she said.
The only lawn bowling club currently active on the Sunshine Coast is in Powell River, where the club is in its 94th year of operation.
