The fate of the Westlock and District Community Hall is still very much up in the air, and the most important thing to keep in mind through all this will be what’s best for the community.
An announcement last week that the hall is running a $20,000 annual deficit spurned some people into action and there have been a variety of discussions about how best to address this issue and make the hall financially stable going forward.
Ultimately, we can all agree this hall is a tremendous benefit to the community. It would be an absolutely worst-case scenario for the hall to close its doors, because none of the other halls in the community can match its capacity.
Having so many other halls in the community does present a bit of a problem, though. In Westlock alone there are three relatively large venues: Memorial Hall, the community hall, and the Legion.
In a town of 5,000 people, there just simply isn’t enough happening to keep all those venues booked. And now, with the addition of the new Hazel Bluff hall to the region’s gathering-place repertoire, there are four halls scrambling for a limited amount of bookings.
Enter the Legion, with discussion about possibly taking over the hall and using it. Realistically, this makes a lot of financial sense.
The Legion has a broad financial base to keep the building afloat, it hosts countless weekly events that would keep the hall filled, and it has a fantastic reputation as a booster of this community.
On top of that, it would reduce the number of potential halls to three, which would likely lead to an all-around increase in bookings for the remaining spaces.
Unfortunately, not everyone would be happy to have the Legion take over the space — and the concern is a legitimate one.
The community hall was built through a community-wide effort, and it will not do to simply pass the reins over to a private organization, even one as community-minded as the Legion, without having a thorough discussion with all the stakeholders. This includes all the residents of the town and the county.
In the end, we can all agree that level heads will prevail, but that won’t happen until everyone feels their voice has been heard.
