In the face of a stretch of poor weather and heating difficulties, kids’ events at the TFS Community Hall will pause until early-to-mid January.
The Hall does not yet have a HVAC system. While the Hall Board received a grant to purchase and install one this past year, they experienced shipping delays in receiving the pieces. While all the parts necessary to build it have finally come in, Bakkila Plumbing & Heating has been, quite understandably, focused on restoring heat to individual families. It’s a poor time of year to be without a source of warmth, and I’m sure many families are grateful for their priorities.
Presently, the TFS Community Hall’s board expects its new HVAC system to be installed some time in early January. In the meantime, the Hall continues to rely solely upon wood heat. With a slow heat time due to a large space to heat, draftiness, and old insulation, event organizers must begin heating the hall several hours in advance, and feed the fire continually throughout.
In light of the Hall’s small chimney fire this past Friday, and events canceled on account of it, its patrons are looking forward to new heating systems more than ever.
This proposition is made more tenuous by questionable roads and lengthy travel times, especially in the case of Kootenai Gymnastics. And, in the case of Trego Kids Learn & Play, that extra time spent heating the facility in the early mornings, and the recent rash of colds going around the local kids, make this a sensible time to pause, let kids get healthy again, regroup… (and pray for a HVAC system)! Both programs shall return in early-to-mid January.
Let’s take a look at what the kids programs at the TFS Hall have accomplished – these ongoing programs, in addition to single-day events, have been a great way for kids to build and develop friendships in what has been a comparatively isolationist post-Covid world.
To give some sense of the scale of their efforts, in less than a year’s time, Trego Kids Learn & Play has served 56 kids from 43 families, and I suspect its second year will serve even more.
Trego's Mountain Ear 