By Alex Soloducha

New Kingdom Hall starts to shape up

Aug 5, 2014 | 6:35 AM

A new building is popping up on the outskirts of Prince Albert, on the way to Saskatoon.

Simon Squire is one of the elders from the local congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses who is involved in the build of their new Kingdom Hall.

“This hall will serve our congregations, in Prince Albert there’s two congregations, for the activities of Jehovah’s Witnesses in the area,” he said. “We have a hall down on Seventh Street that we’re replacing.”

Squire said they hope to complete the new hall by September.

Their other hall has been put up for sale.

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“It’s an expansion and also just a new facility because the old one, to meet our needs it needed upgrading,” said Squire. “A number of years ago the decision was made to build a new hall because it would be more cost effective in the long run.”

Their plans for a new Hall started 8 years ago, according to Squire. First they had to find suitable land, plan the build and organize the volunteer labour.

“We started last fall with a demolition of the old building and the ground preparation work and then this summer we did more ground work,” he said.

They recently poured the concrete and Squire said they want to put up the building in the next week.

About 120 people have been volunteering at the site per day, and they expect more than 300 people each day through August. Squire said they rotate people through depending on their trade and what they can help with.

“They volunteer their time to come and work on a project like this, so our goal is to get it done as efficiently as possible so that they can all return to their daily lives,” he said.

In total, there are about 220 members of their congregation in Prince Albert, but they have members all the way to La Ronge.

Squire said their national headquarters is in Ontario and when a big project like the one they are undertaking comes up, they send out a call for volunteers.

“There are volunteers from throughout Saskatchewan, and even some from Alberta have come,” he said.

The congregation is looking forward to their new location.

“They’ve been excited about this for a number of years,” said Squire. “Especially since we got the development permit last fall to actually start develop the site.”

“Then our excitement went up.”

To fund the project they are using member donations as well as dipping into their global fund, which Squire said members contribute to worldwide and use when there is a need locally.

In total, they had the cost assessed at $1.2 million for materials.

Squire said they are asking a little less than $400,000 for their old site.

So far, Squire said the build is going really well because of the positive attitude of the volunteers.

“It’s a lot of work, a lot of volunteer spirit, and the unity of everybody working together is really evident,” he said. “When you have this many people working in an enclosed environment like this, there’s always personality clashes, there’s challenges to the project.”

“We deal with a problem in a reasonable way; we work at it together and get it done.”

asoloducha@rawlco.com

On Twitter: @alex_soloducha