By John Francis, Bruce Peninsula Press
The Friendship Club building sits right beside the arena in Lion’s Head. It gets a lot of use (or at least it did before COVID…)
SMART exercise program operated two different levels of fitness workouts there, several days a week. The Friendship Club itself held many functions. In addition, the building has long been the venue of choice for community dinners and fundraisers.
The building’s importance is obvious. On the other hand, the building’s shortcomings are equally obvious.
Its origins are partially obscured by the mists of time. I have been told by a couple of longtime Lion’s Head residents that it was originally a pavilion or stable — with a dirt floor, a rafter roof and one wall completely open — that was used in the village’s annual Agricultural Fair before World War II. This version of the story says that a floor, a fourth wall and a ceiling were added later, then later still, a full conversion for four-season use. I have been unable to verify this.
But clearly the building is old and plagued with what Mayor Milt McIver describes diplomatically as “overall structural deficiencies”.
An engineering consultant was engaged a few years ago to evaluate the Friendship Club’s roof. He concluded that replacing the roof would be very expensive ($160,000 if memory serves) but that further study would be needed to make sure the walls could bear the weight of the roof. And that would not address the building’s plumbing and wiring deficiencies, nor the exorbitant cost of heating it.
There has been talk over the years about accommodating the Friendship Club’s needs in the new arena building. But much of that talk happened more than a decade ago at meetings of the Community Centre/Arena Network Group. That process led to an excellent Recreational Master Plan in 2012 and a failed grant proposal, after which the Friendship Club understandably changed its focus back to its own building. But now that the arena reno is actually going to happen, it’s time to reopen the dialogue.
MNBP has four public buildings in the village of Lion’s Head — the library, the Rotary Hall, the arena and the Friendship Club. Does it need four different buildings?
That number will drop to three when the library opens in the arena building. Would a further reduction be cost-effective?
The renovated arena will include an 1,100 square foot exercise room. The arena also has quite a good kitchen, adjacent to the assembly hall, which could handle a lot of community dinners when it’s not being used for hockey. But it’s used for hockey a lot, and there’s no place for Friendship Club potlucks and such. Could a Friendship Club room be added to the arena as part of the upcoming process? (There would be no federal or provincial grant for this, but it could definitely be done.)
On the other hand, the Rotary Hall would be a great place for all of these sorts of things except for the fact that it doesn’t have a proper commercial kitchen. But a proper commercial kitchen was going to be part of the renovation there, until that reno died of sticker shock. (The engineer estimated the cost of the reno at $425,000 or so, but quotes came in much higher than that. It would probably be in the $900k range now. It should be noted that the same math applies to the estimates for the Friendship Club’s roof…)
I asked Mayor McIver about these issues. He agreed that maintaining two buildings is more economical than maintaining three buildings. But he was very careful to emphasize that he can’t predict what decisions Council will make and also can’t predict the outcome of discussions with the Friendship Club. But clearly, “these are discussions we need to have”. MNBP is “committed to offering a facility for these groups” but “I wouldn’t want to say where this Council will stand” as to what facilities should be offered in which building.
Mayor McIver expects an extensive consultation process this winter. He is grateful that there is a three-year window to complete the building, which means the consultations do not have to be rushed.
