Editor:
Re: “SCRD approves new round of public consultation on Coopers Green Hall,” Nov. 27.
A memorandum of understanding is a document that describes the broad outline of an agreement between two parties. The MOU in question was reached between the Sunshine Coast Regional District and the Halfmoon Bay Community Association in 2014! Subsequent to that MOU, the HBCoA, under the specific understanding that a new hall would be built to replace the current inadequate one in Coopers Green Park, proceeded to undertake a fundraising campaign spanning the years since then.
The HBCoA put seed money in the amount of $140,000 into an escrow account (now about $166,000 after interest plus a further $10,000 injection by HBCoA) for the specific use of building a new hall at Coopers Green Park. Fundraising began in earnest in 2015. Events were held in April of 2016 and May of 2017, raising approximately $28,000. All the while the HBCoA was pursuing donations from community members and businesses, to this date amounting to more than $153,000, for a total of about $319,000 set aside in community funds. This July, the SCRD was awarded a maximum of $2 million to move forward with the project.
After all of that, the SCRD directors, instead of moving ahead as they should have, are going to waste more time, more effort and yes more money as every month delayed raises the cost of building the new Coopers Green Community Hall. The vast majority of the people in the community are on board with the new build at Coopers Green. Let’s get it done!
Kevin Roy, Halfmoon Bay
