Granthams Hall will be restored where it sits, the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) board decided at its June 18 community services committee.
Directors were unanimously in favour of going with the “option 3” restoration, which was also unanimously supported by the community at a May 13 public meeting.
“There was a clear indication the community wanted to save the ‘hall that has a heart,’ as they called it,” West Howe Sound director Ian Winn said. “They wanted to have that there and still be able to use it and really to get it repaired and functioning again as quickly as possible.”
The plan is to pull $206,150 from uncommitted West Howe Sound gas tax funds in 2016 for the hall’s restoration. Grants and donations will also be sought by the SCRD and the local community for the project, which is expected to cost about $418,000.
This year, gas tax funds will pay for $66,400 of design and engineering fees for the project to pave the way for the renovation in 2016. Winn hopes to see construction on the site early in the new year, once all the funds for the restoration are secured.
“We want to be able to get the community back in there as soon as possible,” he said.
A follow-up community meeting on the plan will be held within the next four weeks, Winn said, to let the West Howe Sound community know about the SCRD’s direction and to “possibly engage a community working group to look at grant funding and fundraising.”
He noted there could be some appetite in the community to add on to the hall while it’s being restored, which would require a funding plan.
“There are things that can be done to the hall, that if the community wants to do other improvements to it above and beyond what is required to get the hall open, then that would be encouraged,” he said.
Granthams Hall was originally built as a church in 1931 and turned into a community hall in 1993. The SCRD took control of the building in 2009 and in the last few years it has fallen into disrepair. A structural engineering report done earlier this year cited deficiencies in the hall’s roof and foundation and led to the hall being closed.
Residents are currently using other community halls and public spaces to gather for meetings and events.
The motion to proceed has to be ratified by the board at a regular meeting.
