Since 1965, Club 55 has offered activities and social connections for people aged 55 and older from space on the main floor of Town Hall. But discussions are underway to amalgamate the club’s services with those offered by the Town of Huntsville at the Active Living Centre.
Prior to the start of the pandemic, the volunteer-run Club 55 had approximately 200 members who participated in a variety of weekday activities at its space adjacent to the Algonquin Theatre.
The club shut down in March 2020 and has not reopened throughout the pandemic.
Meanwhile, the Town has continued to offer programs for people aged 55-plus at the Active Living Centre and Canada Summit Centre off and on as pandemic restrictions allowed.
Both entities have offered low-cost leisure activities for mature adults.
Recently, Town staff approached the Club 55 executive to gauge their interest in amalgamating their programs with those of the Town in a single community hub at the Active Living Centre.
The staff report indicated that Club 55 executive “are supportive of this initiative and interested in creating an Engagement Charter to provide clear direction with next steps to move their activities, equipment and supplies to the Active Living Centre. Staff recommended Club 55 executive communicate with their membership to inform them of the future programming opportunities with the Town, once provincial regulations are lifted,
and the appropriate arrangements can be made to renovate the space at the Active Living Centre and
a workplan is created to ensure the smooth transition.”
The Town Hall space had been leased to Club 55 for $2 a year, plus maintenance ($1,450) and utilities ($1,450) for 2022, for a total of $2,900. They have also been responsible for their own expenses including phone, advertising, insurance, bank charges, and program and equipment expenses. In 2019 (prior to COVID-19), their total expenses were $12,608.84. The current lease ends June 30, 2023 and has no renewal. Six months written notice to end the lease is required.
Due to COVID, Club 55 did not pay the fees outlined in the lease agreement in 2020 or 2021.
Staff and council have been discussing the need for renovations to Town Hall in recent years. Three floor plan options were presented to the committee at this meeting but discussion has been postponed for another time.
The resolution for committee to “support the creation of one community hub for 55+ programs at the Huntsville Active Living Centre, …[direct staff] to work with Club 55 executive on this transition and the completion of an engagement charter, … [and to direct staff] to give notice to end the existing lease agreement with Club 55” was passed without discussion by committee.
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I am disappointed that there may be no drop in center in the down town of Huntsville. Club 55 was a place that seniors could gather for conversation and a coffee/tea at .50 cents a cup and sometimes a little treat.
Response to Lynn Bennett: I would EXPECT (not hope) that there will be rest areas. And, I’ll assume that the Town will keep the downtown public washrooms open year round. Free transportation to the Active Living Centre – and not just once a day, is a must and the right thing to do.
I am very sad to see the 55 Club disbanded and closed downtown. My grandparents, Alex and Mae Smith, my great aunt and uncle, Effie and Jack Matthews, and their dear friends from the west end put in a lot of volunteer hours to bring the Club to life in 1965. I remember them donning their work clothes and coming home tired after a full day’s work. Then when it opened, they shared many happy stories, chatting about seeing friends and having a roaring game of shuffleboard.
I am curious, will the town offer seniors a downtown rest area? And by this, I mean more than the park benches along the street. I would support offering free ridership to anyone over 65 so they can get to the Active Living Centre.
Ev Wagg. It seems you didn’t have a discussion with our council, but suffered an ambush and mugging by Town staff. Nothing new there. Just some elder people for the unelected to bully on council’s behalf. And we still hold out hope that the people we vote for will represent and speak for us. The ‘Bay’ report on Jan. 27 states that ‘not one councilor had a question or comment’ when presented with the staff report, so it looks like they are not speaking at all. We seem to be governed by unelected ‘staff’.
We’ve heard that no one was aware a barn was built on a flood plain. An ‘egregious wall’ was secretly constructed no more than 5 min. from town hall.
There is the recent instance of a person asking for a zoning minor variance, rightly or wrongly, and council is all over that.
And now they are considering the use of AMPs (administrative monetary penalties), where they just mail out the fine and the victim is forced to appeal to a ‘hearing officer’ employed by the town. Should be able to lubricate a rather extensive “fink” system there; what with fink and counter fink. It seems designed to only apply we ‘little people’.
We hear of expansive comments like, it’s their property so they can do what they want with it and then more specific statements like “discuss a tree-cutting bylaw because they’ve essentially left us no choice.”
But there is no by-law to enforce, nor apparent stomach to enforce it; the trees still fall and the land is razed. Perhaps the bylaw delay is to allow the lands to be cleared pre-emptively.
Would AMPs even work here? Not likely; the big developers would be heaving lawyers at council like bags of cats. Staff would be hunkering behind the councillors.
So, sorry Ev. Let’s look forward to being able to argue and bicker, play euchre and yell “Moonshot” again soon. But I hear that if you take up pickleball, you could be in like a sweaty shirt; so to speak.
Well i personally think if all these services like freshco and now the club 55 are moving out of town the seniors should get free transit passes like they do in England. Seniors are getting a very raw deal in the last 3 years and it seems like it is going to keep on.
Remove anything that draws people to downtown Huntsville.
It was something many seniors enjoyed,.it was within walking distance.
Seniors are not important. They die in nursing homes or council
does away with what little enjoyment they have available.
If I did not know better one would think Doug Ford was running town council.
Without Prejudice.
Club 55 was forced to move and join with Adult Activity Club at summit building
Club was told that if they didn’t agree to move then they would have to be out for they weren’t renewing the contract in 2023 and they would use the clause in our contract they would give us notice to leave.
Club will celebrate 65 years on Feb 14 2022
In the past the Mayors of Huntsville and Councillors gave the club support on there club providing a place for seniors to come and meet
The club has done a great service to Huntsville and drawing people to Main Street
It’s a very Sad day for club 55
No salary’s All volunteers