Happy New Year and All That, Even Though It Is Now February

Hi all

Happy New Year and all that, even though it is now February.

I know it ages since the last newsletter, see what happens when you take a week off at Christmas.

Good news first again this time

Despite the lack of communication the work has been continuing.

1st We finally got the paint to stick to the walls in the toilets, tiled the areas around the basins and fitted the grab rails in the disabled loo, so they are 99.999% finished. Just towel and toilet roll holders to put up.

2nd The kitchen has been fitted and looks great (thanks Terry). Just have to do the tiling and the pipe work for the cooker hood.

3rd The main hall has been repainted, the gaps in the flooring patched up and new display boards fitted.

Thanks to those few people who turned up to help with the painting, you know who you are.

4th Foyer painting finished and notice boards put up.

5th Planning of the grand opening is underway.

Work is now focused on the meeting room to get it completed ASAP.

Last but not least we have got a new user. Andrew Hesketh will be running Tai Chi classes on a Saturday morning.

Bad stuff

The snow was excellent ( I was a 10 year old kid all day), the -15oC was not. The new water pipe to the Centre come up the front of the building in a “highly insulated” protective plastic box. It works fine at -5 but not at -15 and froze twice before I solved the problem and by burying it in 3 feet of snow.

There is still a load of work to do and despite recent events not a lot of money to pay for it.

The biggest challenge we have left in terms of construction work is the finishing of the main and emergency accesses.

The main entrance will have ramp to the left of the door and steps to the right with a brick wall across the front and 2 disabled parking spaces at the end of the ramp together with the associated handrails and surface finishes.

The emergency exit will have a larger concrete pad at the door and ramp to the car park.

Other bad stuff.

We had our security posts stolen from the entrance to the car park (one of them was still locked in place). They have been replaced together with new locks, it cost £120 for the posts and over £50 to get all the new sets of keys cut.

Lastly, although we have received some large sums of money the overall budget to complete the project is still very tight and we are as a Group spending every penny we have.

Our fundraising efforts are continuing the family Bingo night was a great success raising £185 on the night. Thanks to all who organised or attended.

That’s it for now.