Recent History – 2001
Feb. 23, 2001
By Mark Nielsen, Daily News Staff
The financial troubles are deepening for the Salvation Army as they await the verdict on the Thrift Store.
“We have to get up and running, at least partially,” Captain Joan Shayler said Thursday.
Plans to renovate the store were put on hold earlier this month when an engineer recommended that it be torn down instead.
Shayler said she’s waiting for the Salvation Army’s engineer to come into Dawson Creek and provide a second opinion, and in the meantime, she continues to search for a temporary home.
Prior to the report, the Salvation Army had planned to re-open the renovated Thrift Store by the start of March.
“We need to get something in action as quickly as possible because as of the first we really have almost next to no funds,” Shayler said.
When open the Thrift Store generates about $10,000 a month which allows the Salvation Army to provide various services at the family services centre, located next door on 104th Street. But closed, Shayler said it’s become a liability because the mortgage and the utilities on the building must still be paid.
And with the money tightening, she said the amount of services that the Salvation Army can provide is dropping dramatically.
“Even like today, somebody phoned us and wanted us to put them up at a hotel until Monday when he starts a job and I just had to say Ôsorry, I don’t have the funds’,” she said.
Staffing at the family services centre has been reduced to one person, and they may have to cut back on the amount of money that’s spent on the food hampers.
“I know that there are some items that we are completely out of already,” she said. “I know that some items like pork and beans and canned meat and some of the basic stuff, pasta sauces, we’re out.”
Shayler has had some offers for a temporary home for the Thrift Store, but the rent is too high. “We can’t afford these $4,000 jobs a month,” she said.
A Salvation Army major is scheduled to be in town next week, possibly with the engineer in tow. Even if the Salvation Army is able to find a solution that allows them to keep the building, she said it will take at least three months to renovate.