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VILLAGE HALL NEWS
Work is still going on in the Hall, believe it or not, but we are coming to the last stages. There is still a bit of decorating to complete and we are hoping to soon have the floor sanded for the final time before sealing and then it will really begin to look finished. It is being used by some of our organisations, one recent event being a meeting of our own W.I. members and those from five neighbouring Institutes, (over 100 in total). It went very well and generated many complimentary remarks about the refurbished Hall and new facilities. (The last time we held this particular meeting here, it was a miserable wet night following a particularly wet day and we had buckets catching the rain as it came through the ceiling, --- which is probably another reason why they were suitably impressed)!!
You may have been wondering why progress on the Hall appears to have come to a stop, so I will try to explain the situation. The Rural Enterprise Scheme, which is the major funder of the project, whilst awarding us the finance does not just pay the whole of the money into our bank account for our direct use, but instead stipulates certain stages of work for which we have to be billed, and on what date, then we pay and send the receipted invoice to the funders for reimbursement. This has worked reasonably well and by having temporary loans to supplement the funds we hold, we have been able to manage and have now paid the final account for expected work. The funders however, will not release the reimbursement money until they have received completion certificates from all the service providers etc. One required certificate was that from the electrician who suffered a delay in obtaining the particular lights he had ordered and also had to return to do final work after the builders had finished, another from the Building Control Department, which they could not issue until various items were to their satisfaction. One of these was the installation of railings on the steps and ramp. As you know, they have only recently been finished, after a bit of a hold-up in manufacture but we have now been issued with the completion certificate from Building Control so should not have much longer to wait before we receive reimbursement of our final payment.
On receipt of this cash, we shall be able to prioritise the remaining purchases and complete the job ----- apart from anything on the 'wish list' that we still have to fund raise for!
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