United Way Has a New Home

By 250 News

The United Way has found a new home. 

At the end of October, it will move  to the 5th floor of the Native Friendship Centre on 3rd Avenue.

United Way Excutive Director Trevor Williams says  landing a location  is a big relief "In one breath, we were saying hurray, we have a new home, then in the next breath we realized, oh...we have to pack!"

The move  is the result of the site selection for the new gaming centre.  The block that is occupied by the United Way and others,  is the site chosen and approved by Prince George City Council as the new location for the centre which will be home to what used to be Good Time Bingo as well as 100 slot machines.

For Williams, the timing of the move isn't easy.  The United Way is in the midst of its annual fundrasing campaign.  "We are off to a great start with a corporate donation of $100 thousand dollars from Canfor,  but the move will come in the middle of the campaign.  I am hoping that once we have completed the move, I can once again focus on what I need to focus on" 

While the United Way will be taking several agencies along with it,  including the Parent Support Services, Volunteer Prince George, Deaf Children's Society, and the Western Institute for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, it is the Crisis Centre that will face themost critical timing.  "Because they operate the crisis phone lines, they cannot  be shut down. It will have to be  switch on, switch off system so they don't  run the risk of losing even one call" says Williams.

All the work orders are in for the phones and computer lines, and there are some renovations to be done but Williams is confident  it will all work out.  He says the square footage will be  about the same (6,000) and once all the dust settles,  the cost for the space will be about the same.  "We didn't pay rent on the existing building because it was a City owned property, but we did cover the cost of heat and utilities, so it worked out to about $12 dollars a square foot.  We are still fine tuning the agreement with the Native Friendship Centre, but it looks like the rent will still  be in that $10-$12 dollars a square foot range ". 

The owner of the Gaming Centre, John Major, has offered to help with the moving expenses, which are expected to come in between $15 and $20 thousand dollars. 

The United Way is working out a three year lease with the Native Friendship Centre and at the end of the three years, the lease could be renewed, but at market value. "That has me more concerned than what's happening right now" says Williams.  He worries the current boom and demand for downtown property  could push the space out of their budget in three years time.

But for now, Williams  is looking at the tasks at hand.  Packing, and shredding, and packing, and shredding.  There are he says boxes and boxes of old documents that need to be dealt with.  Documents that no longer need to be saved, but  because of the confidential nature of their contents, must  be shredded.

Moving from the current  location has Williams looking for a new angle  "You know, this old building used to be the jail" says Williams, as he goes into detail about how the makers of Monopoly used the original name for United Way as a game component "People didn't realize that the Community Chest was really the first name for the United Way, so I would say to people who came to this old building, that it was the only time you could visit the Community Chest AND get out of jail free!  I guess I am going to have to come up with a new line."

Well Trevor think again. 

The New location is the Old Courthouse.  Of course,  when prisoners  went to court...there were holding cells.... in the basement.  So technically, Trevor can stick with the old line.

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