Reconstruction of the new clubhouse has started at Minnewasta Golf and Country Club.
This is just the first step of giving hope to the community after fire ripped through the previous clubhouse that was nearly ready to open this past winter, after the prior building also burned to the ground a few years ago.
Greg Hesom, General Manager and Head Professional, says the timber frame is now up.
"It was done in record time," he said.
It'll be another two weeks or so before the next crew comes in to do the roof and other framing.
"It's frustrating for some people not to see, once the timbers go up, an immediate continuation of work, which is understandable. But we have all the trades lined up on their dates and we'll get them here as they're able."
The goal remains to have the clubhouse open by May or June 2026.
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According to Hesom, the rebuilt clubhouse will look nearly identical to the previous one.
"We had the good fortune of the concrete foundation being able to be re-used," he said. However, we will still see a few small changes. "There's been some code changes in between and, obviously, the opportunity to tweak just a couple of things where we said we could have done that differently. So yeah, there's a couple of changes there but, from the exterior, it's going to look almost identical."
Pushing ahead
Despite the challenges of the last few years, Hesom says community support has been fantastic, noting staff and board members are using that encouragement to push forward.
Additionally, fund raising for the project is ongoing but, this time, on a smaller scale.
"It is difficult this time around in the sense that we had a big push, and we were wonderfully supported by the community and business community, on the first go-round," said Hesom. "We had insurance on the building but there are always extra and hidden costs. An example, the demolition. All that money, which was close to $200,000, has to come out of the rebuild money. There isn't a separate policy."
Meantime, the season at the golf club is going well. Hesom says it's always busy and there have been no tournament cancellations because of the clubhouse set back.
"The golf course is the backbone of what we do here and it's in absolutely fantastic shape," he said.
With files from Robyn Wieb