Restoration work at the RMSS Maple Ridge Seniors Activity Centre is at a temporary standstill following a flash flood on Sept. 14.
Major restoration work is taking place at the building after water poured in through every door, pooling in areas around five centimetres deep.
All the flooring at the centre has to be replaced along with drywall a metre up from the ground.
Drywall removal has already started. But after removing it from the main office spaces, workers have found other minor leaks.
“They have found some other minor leaks that must have been happening for a very long period of time. Now we are having to deal with a whole other situation before we move forward with the original restoration,” said Maria Perretta, executive director of the Ridge Meadows Seniors Society.
So far restoration crews have removed all the furniture, items from the walls and have started removing the drywall from two of the offices and the dining room.
The centre has 1,500 members, who utilize 90 weekly programs there, most of which have been relocated.
Carmen Tischer, activity coordinator with the centre, has managed to relocate almost every program, although she said there is still some fine-tuning going on.
She has only had issues relocating a couple of the bridge programs because she needs to find a venue that would already have card tables and chairs in place in the amounts that the program would need and during the same time slot.
“Pretty much every program has been able to find a home during the times that they currently had. We are pretty happy about that. We are feeling very positive about that,” said Perretta.
Perretta is looking forward to getting an up-to-date restoration process timeline and will post it on the Ridge Meadows Seniors Society website with all the other updates.
She is still hoping to open rooms up to patrons once the work in them have been completed.
“It is most likely that halls A, B and C will continue to be unusable. So we will only have our smaller rooms to work with because, my understanding is, they are needing to remove all the hardwood floors,” Perretta explained.
“It’s an odd feeling to see the Maple Ridge Activity Centre usually so vibrant and full of life, so empty,” said Perretta.
“We understand how extremely important our activities are to encourage healthy aging and stave off isolation. So the idea of our activities carrying on warms our hearts, no matter where they are being held,” she said.
The kitchen was the only area untouched by the flood and continues to be operational. A daily meal service is still being offered through the side door of the kitchen between 11:30 a.m. and 12:45 p.m. for anyone who would like a takeaway meal. And on Oct. 5 the takeaway meal will include a special turkey dinner for Thanksgiving.