Fred Fedorak: Letter to School District 67 Trustees

The following letter was sent to the trustees for School District 67. It was also reprinted in the Herald on 11 April, 2007.

Dear School District No. 67 Trustee,

I was very disappointed to learn that the School Board, although extending the deadline for a plan to save the auditorium, is not interested at all in the future of the Pen Hi gymnasium. Why bring forth a deadline to save one and not the other?

I am requesting the Board reconsider this decision and take a very serious look at how the loss of the gym will impact the community. Please consider the community as a whole on this matter and not just the position of the School District. Local residents pay taxes that go into school, as well as municipal, coffers. So in a sense the community has a vested interest in those buildings.

I am well aware of the Board’s decision to provide an excellent double sized new gym complete with weight room and in accordance with the Ministry of Education regulations. You are to be commended for your decision and the numerous hours that you have spent going over the plans for the new facility. However, this new gym is primarily for student use. The community in all probability will not have access to this facility because during the winter months it is fully scheduled for student activities. At the present time I understand that the Community Centre gym is overused during this same high season period. As a result of the planned demolitions, the community as a whole will be hard pressed to provide spaces for recreational activities and performing arts.

I believe that with some creativity the parking and bus loading areas can be reconfigured to accommodate your safety concerns. Where there is a will there is a way! We are not studying buildings that are past their usefulness and ready for the landfill, as they have several years of productive use left in them.

Project to the future and visualize the negative impact that the demolition of these two buildings will have on the community of Penticton. Visualize also the positive impact for the local citizens by turning them over to the City of Penticton to operate. With the present financial situation of City Council I cannot see enough funds being made available for the replacement of the aforesaid facilities in the next decade. We really won’t know what we have lost until these buildings have disappeared.

Respectfully submitted,
Fred Fedorak

Fred Fedorak: Letter to City Council

To: Penticton City Council:

I have written letters to the editors of the two local papers, Herald and Advertiser in regard to the planned destruction of the Pen Hi auditorium and gymnasium. I have also sent a copy of the same letter to Council and School District 67. This note is to make you aware of this action on my part, and to also make a personal appeal to you to try and save these venues for the good of the community.

Because School District 67 is not interested in preserving the above buildings, I believe that the only way that they can be saved for community use, is for the City of Penticton to come to some form of arrangement with the School District to transfer those buildings to the City. Which, I realize that it also means the transfer of maintenance and upgrade costs.

I understand that you have a significant number of projects that are at the top of your priority list. We have two structurally sound buildings with the possibility of several years of usage that can never be replaced without significant overwhelming construction costs. Granted substantial money has to be made available to up grade the buildings so they can stand alone When they are destroyed, we will have asphalt to take their place, which translates into considerably more parking spaces which will be more than adequate for school usage. If we do not make a concentrated effort to conclude an accommodation with the School District, we could miss a great opportunity to prevent the loss of two very sound buildings. To me this does not make very good economic sense.

Before the Arts Council obtains the financing for their planned Arts Center, what building will they use for their needs? Would it not be prudent to keep the auditorium in use until such time as money becomes available? What is wrong with putting the new Arts Center in the same location as the present site of the auditorium? >From my perspective, if the building goes down, that group no longer has a suitable venue for current use.

Please consider what impact the loss of four venues, Pen HI Auditorium, Pen Hi South Gym, Pen HI North Gym and Nanaimo Hall will have on the community. With our growing and ageing population, demand for recreational and performing arts venues will increase not decrease in demand,

If financing is not available what is wrong with mothballing the sites until Council has the funds to upgrade and maintain them? It makes no sense to upgrade and save one site and not the other that is why I have combined my appeal to save both buildings.

Respectfully submitted

Fred Fedorak
Citizen of Penticton since 1959

Fred Fedorak: Save our North Gym

T.N. Fedorak,
February 25, 2007

Penticton City Council,
City of Penticton,
171 Main Street,
Penticton, B.C. V2A 5A9

Dear Sirs:

SAVE THE PEN HI AUDITORIUM!

SAVE OUR NORTH GYM!

Time is drawing near when the community of Penticton will have three less recreational venues and one less performing arts venue. It was announced recently by school district 67, in the Penticton Herald, that no group has come forward with a plan to save the Pen Hi Auditorium. In that press release there was no reference to the Pen Hi North Gym, which is adjacent to that building.

- Pen Hi South Gym has been demolished.

- Pen Hi North Gym is scheduled for demolition.

- Pen Hi Auditorium is scheduled for demolition.

- Nanaimo Hall, which is a City of Penticton property, is scheduled for demolition as well.

What is going to replace the above buildings? With the exception of Pen Hi, which will receive a new gym, no replacement is planned for the others.

School District 67 has placed a date of March 31 for any group that is interested in presenting a plan for the auditorium.

A growing city population requires more recreational and performing spaces not less. It is widely accepted that physical activities and other active pursuits such as music and drama are very essential to a healthy life style both for the body and the mind. Which in turn helps reduce the stress on our health systems and the persons who pay the bills, the taxpayers.

School District #15 and recently #67 are to be commended for maintaining an excellent gymnasium as well as other District properties. Having been closely connected to the history of the gym since 1959, in various capacities as player, coach, teacher, summer camp operator, I have seen several improvements carried out to a very sound structure. Several hundreds of thousands of dollars were recently spent on its renovations. The North gym has always been maintained as a first class facility. In fact the school district can take great pride on how well they have been able manage all of their properties. In the thirty-four years that I have visited other high schools, we rank up there with the best. In the opinion of numerous visiting coaches it still ranks as one of the best high school gymnasiums in the province bar none. At present we have a treasure that will not be duplicated in the future.

Prior to 1948, when the present high school was constructed, the Scout Hall, which eventually was transferred to the school district, was the gymnasium. It was a very confined structure but did serve as the South Gym. After 1948 Pen Hi had the luxury of two gymnasiums, which allowed for a second teaching station up until its demise in 2005. Several secondary schools in the province have two official sized gyms on their properties, in a number of cases; they serve as shared entities between the school and the community.

It is a well-known fact that the policy of the Ministry of Education at this time does not provide operating funding for two gymnasiums. For the good of the community of Penticton and district, some form of cooperation and transfer of ownership has to occur between School District 67 and the City Of Penticton. The physical education classes at Pen Hi would continue to maintain two teaching stations as they still had prior to 2005. If the gym and auditorium are to be demolished, we are going to have one huge asphalt parking lot bordering Eckhardt Avenue.

Saving the auditorium also means saving the gym. The cost in saving two buildings is apparently slightly more that saving just one of the structures. When the new Arts Center is to be constructed, where is to be located? How about the present site of the Pen Hi Auditorium? In the meantime the present site, with minimal upgrades would do until the Arts group get their financing in order for a new center.

It seems to me a terrible waste of structures that have maybe twenty usable years left in them. With the destruction of those buildings, what structures are going to take their place? Concerned citizens should let their elected representatives know that they would like these buildings to remain standing and that the City of Penticton develop a plan and the financing to sustain those structures.

Respectfully submitted,

Fred Fedorak

Cc: School District No. 67
Editor, The Herald
Editor, The Western Advertiser