A new building is something the Wallaceburg Adult Activity Centre hopes is on the horizon.
Pete Hensel, president of the board, said there are two centers in Chatham-Kent doing that right now, in Blenheim and Ridgetown.
“It’s not just a case of building something that is adequate for your needs, it’s making sure that you have the finances to maintain it after it’s built. The Municipality pays all of the utilities and any repairs that would need to be done to it. There is other Centers that are basically leased or given at a price for using one or two days a week. There are some Centers that are owned by the members like in Tilbury. Then there are other centers like ours and Bothwell that pay a rent and the utilities are supplied. So there are many deals out there.”
Hensel said there is a lot of thought that has to go into the decision.
“So if you put up a $1 million dollar building, now all the sudden you can’t afford the tax and insurance.”
Hensel said they have looked at properties in Wallaceburg to possibly move into, including the former D.A. Gordon Public School.
“Right now I don’t personally see anything in Wallaceburg that would have suited us,” he said.
“We looked at the D.A Gordon school and a new wing of that and the gymnasium likely would have been a good fit but the trouble was the rest of it would not be good. It was old, the roof on it was maybe suspect plus all the heating system was in the old part and there was no air conditioning. The ideal one would have been W.T Lang school but it fell by the wayside.”
Hensel said the Centre is in the process of getting a charity number as well.
“So that we can give tax receipts. We also take donations but until we get the charity number we cannot issue a tax receipt. We accept donations of yarn, buttons, Campbell Soup labels, milk bags and old greeting cards for some of the activities.”
The Wallaceburg Adult Activity Centre is located at 205 James St. in Wallaceburg. Give them a call at 519-627-6224 or give them a ‘Like’ on Facebook.
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