News

- TeReview Wednesday, September 9, 1992 —

A2

SHEDDING A NEW LIGHT look on Peninsula Community Bingo

is George Scully of Royal Oak, a member of the Loyal Order
of Moose. A member of thai service club since 1968, he was
one of the volunteers painting the hall last week to prepare
for the re-opening on Sept. 16.

SANDOWN _

BINGO

Continued from Page Ai

Trivett said the association
hopes to bring in $120,000 a
month gross from bingo games.

The B.C. Gaming Commission,
which regulates bingo operations
throughout the province, gave the
association permission to use up to
$10,000 of non-profit/charitable
funds to re-start the bingo.

In addition, the commission has
relaxed some of the stringent
requirements governing bingo
games for the first six months to
allow the association to pay off the
accumulated debt.

The commission suggests the
hall should be able to earn
$150,000 a month gross — a
figure which would give every
participating non-profit group
$375 for every 16 hours of volun-
teer labor.

The building landlord has forgi-
ven the July and August rent
although the monthly rent is going
up $100 a month, Trivett said.

Trivett said 45 non-profit groups
are still involved in the operation.
Of those, 39 voted in favor of
trying to continue the bingo.

Volunteers have re-painted the
walls and tables, cleaning up and
brightening the hall:

A new manager, Stephen Kol-
bein, has been: hired. Kolbein
worked with the Shrine Club in
Prince Rupert operating a bingo
and has an excellent reputation,
Trivett said.

Two or three former key staff

members will be rejoining the
Operation. :

However, the overall organiza-
tion will be changed to rely more
heavily on volunteers.

Except for the busy Friday and
Saturday night sessions, volunteers
will man the concession.

“We're going to try and get
more involvement from the chari-
ties in the operation of the bingo,”
Trivett said.

Volunteers have worked all sum-
mer to try and re-open the bingo.
Trivett said he has devoted count-
less hours to the project and will ~
now be resigning when his term
expires in three weeks.

Continued from Page Al

be running this year. That will
leave about 80 staff members out
of-work for that period.

Although the racing commis-
sion has offered thoroughbred
dates twice to the track, they have
declined because the best dates
have been offered to Cloverdale,
Askew said.

So far, there have been no dates
offered by the commission for
hamess racing next summer.

During the 1991 standardbred
season (May to September), 300
people were employed, attendance
was about 300,000 and over 500

horses saw action at the North

Saanich hamess racing track.
And it seems support for retain-
ing racing at Sandown is wides-

pread. A petition for the retention

of live horse racing at Sandown
Race track was spearheaded by the
Sandown Harness Racing Club.

Along with the 2,500-name
petition in support of live racing,
the park has also enlisted support
from both Sidney and North Saa-
nich councils.

But still, “There’s a 50-50
chance that Sandown Park will
close its live racing doors for
good,” Keeling said.

He said one of the problems
seems to be the lack of a Van-
couver Island representative on the
racing Commission.

But Askew disagrees. “T talk to
a lot of people on the Island Gn
regards to racing) on a regular
basis. No Island representative
could make a viable proposition to

change anything at Sandown,” she
said.

And there are no plans in the
works to assign an Island represen-
tative to the commission, Askew
added.

One possibility for the future of
Sandown could be the introduc-
tion of television intertrack view-
ing, Keeling said.

But “positive attributes would
be lost if this area was to be
provided with only television
intertrack viewing and could tend
to encourage pub-type entertain-
ment, harness racing club vice-
president Charles Getty said.

“Patrons of the sport want to see
live racing, to watch the horses in
the paddock and to crowd the rail
and cheer on their choice,” Getty
added.: :

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