The Nu2U community thrift store opens this week with expanded premises.
Last week volunteers ñ with some help from town staff ñ expanded eastward into the former Fairy Meadows Play Area that had operated next door. They've signed a lease with that building's owner and a door has been created to connect both areas.
Town manager of community development Michelle Honeyman says altogether, the expansion will provide the store with a total of about 7,300 square feet of space.
However, only 3,300 of that space will be retail space (the former Fairy Meadows area). The previous existing space will now be used for storage, sorting and recycling purposes.
Honeyman says the extra area is a real boon because up until now, a lot of stuff for sale has had to be stored in volunteers' garages, etc. because there just wasn't enough room to store it in the old space.
"What we're hoping to do is free up some volunteers' garages for the winter again and make sure that we have enough space to store all the donations," Honeyman says.
She's unsure what will happen to an existing shed at the back.
"Depends how much Christmas stuff we get."
She says the expansion won't impact taxpayers because Nu2U operations ñ including the lone paid staff position (store manager Barb Adair) are all covered from money derived from the operation.
Any extra revenue, she notes, goes into the community in the form of grants.
Honeyman says the town obtained the lease at the beginning of July. Some work was done after that. The store was closed last week to enable the remainder of the work to be done to get the facility ready for today's opening.
"They've devised a great way to display things, and all the pictures on the wall. So they've done all the work, other than one of our town staff did take down some walls for us and create a room for the mattresses and things like that," she says.
Honeyman says more than 20 volunteers come in regularly to help operate the store. Others come in as needed to help with specific tasks.
Adair is pleased to see the expansion occur.
"It's always something we've wanted to do for a while," she says. "It's looking 100 per cent better."
"What we're hoping to do is free up some volunteers' garages for the winter again and make sure that we have enough space to store all the donations."MICHELLE HONEYMANTOWN COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT MANAGER
