Newsletter Issue 4

Welcome to Issue 4 of the Kinawley Community Hall Association Newsletter which updates you on the project. We have not had an update for some time but a lot has been happening in the background.

Summary Position

We have now completed the detailed design of the hall, sent out full requests for tender and received binding quotations from all interested building contractors. In line with the requirements of the funding agencies we advertised for expressions of interest from contractors across the Country and we are happy to say we received a huge interest in the project from a wide rage of contractors so we are confident that we will have a very cost-effective project when complete. Of the 30 plus contractors who expressed an interest initially we have narrowed these to four. With these we have gone through a detailed analysis based on price, previous experience and completion ability. We expect that within the next two to three weeks we will be in a position to select the winning bid. That will be a major milestone for our project and we will update you on that as soon as the final decision is made.

Site Preparation

In the meantime we have also now taken full ownership of the site and the area of the Hall is in the process of being fenced and prepared for initial building ground works. We will be erecting signage at the site in the coming days which will give details of the build programme and layout of the Hall. Feel free to visit the site and any member of the Committee would be delighted to explain the layout and what we can expect over the course of the next 15 months.

Finance, Accounts and Fundraising

At the same time, the hard work on fundraising continues. We are delighted that out of the £200,000 Community target that we set we have now crossed the £100,000 mark!! This is wonderful and has mainly been realized from the Founder Member’s Club which has received a great response. Thank you all for your very generous support but please keep up the good work as we need to reach the £200,000 mark as soon as we can. If you haven’t signed up yet for the Founder Member’s Club or would like to know more contact any member of the Association with names and telephone numbers listed on the back.

Upcoming Events

We also have a number of one-off events planned for the coming months and into the new year and we need everyone to support these and get your friends and relations from outside the local community to support as well.

The High Kings

In particular I would ask you all to make a huge effort over the next few weeks to buy a ticket and support the High Kings fundraising concert in the Slieve Russell on 4th November. Tickets are £25 or €25 and we need to sell as many as we possibly can. If you can help the Association members by selling tickets in your place of work or elsewhere please contact any member of the Association and we will get tickets for you. That would be a wonderful way to help. The night is destined to be a huge success and will really signal the start of the project. It will be a fantastic way to beat the winter blues and get ready for Christmas.

By then we will have a contractor selected and we hope that work will have begun.

Who wants to be a Thousandaire?

We have also secured the very successful Who wants to be a Thousandaire? for April next year and we will be asking everyone to help in making that a major fundraiser and enjoyable night too.

There are other events planned as well and we will be advertising these locally in advance. Please do your best to support where you can.

Build Programme

After the contractor has been awarded the contract we hope that work will begin immediately. Our target remains that we will have the hall open for Christmas 2012 so the pressure really starts now. There is lots of work to be done between now and then so if you feel you can help out in the Association we would only be too delighted if you make contact with us. It is an exciting time for all the people in Kinawley and if you want you can become part of making the project really successful.

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