Enough is enough. Newcastle Village Community Hall in Newcastle (Clarington), Ontario was donated by the Massey family in 1923 and intended to be a community hub: it housed the library, post office, and even the jail.

Through the years, unfortunately, access to our Hall and the centre point of our town has eroded. A small group of residents control use of the Hall, even though it is owned by the Municipality of Clarington. One board member, in a board of only 5, sat for 42 years.

As a board member myself for a year from 2023-2024, I raised concerns on several occasions about the Hall being underutilized and not available to the community as it was intended.

Recently, the Hall has again been in the news as work begins to [finally] install air conditioning. What's not widely shared is that, for some reason, the municipality is only paying half of the cost of this upgrade and requiring the community to fundraise the rest ($325K).

Local representatives Willie Woo and Margaret Zwart did not support full funding.

This brings me to perhaps the catalyst for this petition, which is that the Hall is apparently once again hosting comedian Darrin Rose, brother-in-law of the Hall board chair, for a "fundraising" event.

Side note: tickets are $30 which at a full capacity of 300 people, with no expenses, gives $9,000. Out of $325K.

WHY is our beautiful, historical community hall being used as a private club house, under the guise of fundraising? Why are we "fundraising" for a municipal facility at all? Why are millions of dollars being spent on new municipal facilities while the Hall sits empty?

The Hall has so much potential. It could be used as a community centre, house seniors programs, child care, arts camps, local theatre and more.

The historic jail cell could be on display rather than used as a storage room. The bowling lanes could be open and bright and happy instead of tightly and privately controlled by one party. Children could freely explore and play. There could be a public café or lounge.

While the Hall was initially governed by the Massey will, the will also stipulated that more men than women sit on the board. The municipality has revised the by-law terms multiple times and is well within their rights to take over management of this facility after 100+ years.

All I want to see is that the Hall be opened up to our community and used to its full potential. It's the centre of our community and it deserves so much more respect than this.