Editor:
Last week’s story about the Granthams Hall renovation issue left out some important context. While I was off the Coast that day and therefore not able to attend the SCRD meeting at which a couple of directors resisted our request for funding, I have, with many other community members, been trying to get our hall back in usable condition since the SCRD closed it in 2015, a mere six years after acquiring it, plus our well and the entire Granthams water system and several lots, from the dissolving Granthams Landing Improvement District.
Granthams’ residents voted for the transfer on the basis of promises the SCRD made to us, to improve the water distribution system and maintain the hall for the use of all Coast residents.
When the SCRD closed the hall, because it wasn’t up to contemporary standards, several community members jumped in to volunteer repairing it. We didn’t want the moon, just the same beloved heritage-designated hall, with the accessibility features the building code now requires, as well as repairs to the roof and foundation. We were encouraged to wait and go through the SCRD’s process, which we have more or less patiently done for three years now while the hall sits sadly empty. Meantime, we held a hugely successful fundraiser and received a grant. All this money is there to be used to outfit the hall we’ve been waiting to see reopened for three years. We expect the SCRD to keep the promises made before most of the present directors were elected.
We are an open-handed community. When we transferred to the SCRD all our other community assets, we kept the Granthams Wharf. We maintain and improve it with enthusiastic support from all the neighbours. Any Coast resident can, and many do, use our wharf at no charge. We hope that when the renovation of our hall comes up again, the representatives of other Coast neighbourhoods will vote in the same generous spirit.
Mary Burns, Granthams Landing
