“You never know when you’re dealing with old buildings,” cautioned Lori Richer, President of the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 225 at 201 River Street in Sturgeon Falls. “What will happen when they start? Because it kind of has the domino effect sometimes.”
So ran one of the many thoughts Richer had while undergoing the new HVAC project at the Legion. It’s been a process, she admitted, “a lot of work, most of these grants are a lot of work.”
She’s referring to an Ontario Trillium Grant, which the Legion was successful in attaining. The grant put $17,900 toward the project, a gift Richer and Legion users are ever grateful for. With the new HVAC now completed, the air-quality is much improved, and conforms to “all Covid requirements, so it’s great,” Richer added.
It was during the early days of Covid that this project began. The Legion also serves as an Ontario Court of Justice. This satellite court sets up every month or so to hear local cases, and to ensure the safety of those attending, the building had to comply to stricter air filtration standards.
Now those standards are met, “the filters are about triple the size of the ones they had,” Richer noted. Overall, the new HVAC system is top-notch. Easy to use, and the circulation throughout the building flows better than ever.
It’s a relief because it was a process to get everything together. “Different fans and different units had to be replaced,” Richer said, which came as unexpected surprises. And before the work even began, she had to comb through the many boxes of files and papers in the storeroom to locate the original plans and details about the HVAC system.
Labels were lacking.
“We had to go through every single box to find what we were looking for,” she recalled, “a special project of dirty, dusty old papers. There weren’t very many enthusiastic helpers, let’s put it that way,” she joked.
However, once the paperwork was cobbled together, the process continued. It turned out the system was eligible for an upgrade through the funding program, so then the work began to complete the grant. Those funds covered most of the work, although the Legion still kicked in $7,000, Richler noted.
It was all worthwhile, as the new system will keep the people more comfortable. The Legion is well-used in Sturgeon Falls, with everything from court proceedings to line dancing, to social dinners. “We have a lot of activity here,” Richer said.
“Kudos to the Trillium Foundation for what they’ve been able to do for us, our veterans, and our veterans’ families” she added.
David Briggs is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of BayToday, a publication of Village Media. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.
