Dear editor,
The building that is now the Courtenay Recreation Centre Lewis Centre was formerly the Comox Valley Agricultural Hall and where the memorial pool was built were the barns and sheds to display farm animals.
The CRA was established about 1948 and the memorial pool was built a few years later.
The agricultural society moved to their present location and continued with the Fall Fair but not having a large covered building for display of produce, the fair struggled.
In about 1957 the society decided to build an agricultural hall on their property and a mortgage was arranged with the local credit union in the amount of about $85,000. This sum would include an ice-making facility to provide curling in the off-season to help pay the mortgage.
In 1959, the curling club was formed and like other curling clubs in the province, it was unprofitable. Nothing was paid on the mortgage in principal or interest. The only occupancy cost the curling club was able to pay was the annual property taxes.
Eventually the credit union became impatient and made a demand for payment or they would foreclose. To check the loss of the building the curling club executive arranged for the regional board to take possession of the building.
The point of this letter is that the ice-making facility is aged and wearing out. The most logical solution is to let the building revert to its original owners and developers and turn it into a farmers’ market.
A facility that has over the years, proven its worth and popularity in the whole district and should by now have earned a permanent home. The needs of the curlers could be met with a well-insulated and purpose-built building adjacent to our existing ice rinks.
Bruce McPhee,
Comox Valley
