New community hub is in full swing on Grantown High Street
Grantown’s brand new community hub is up and running - with its own development manager.
Bill Sadler, chair of the project leaders Grantown Society, confirmed this week that wiith support from the Scottish Land Fund they had engaged Keith Ballam as their part-time development manager.
“For the next six months at least, we shall have a new member in our team, helping to take forward the work of the hub, both community and commercial.
“With funding, also, from Connect Scotland we are now a digital inclusion centre and new IT hardware will be arriving this month . We already have a much-used ATM and state-of-the-art broadband delivered wirelessly rather than by copper or fibre.”
On Tuesday the team started opening for regular opening hours: Tuesday and Wednesday, Friday and Saturday 10-12 and 2-4 plus other times and days on request.
John Halliday confirmed that Rapier Systems from Fife had installed WiFi broadband: “Fast internet connectivity is crucial for our intended needs.
“Internet connectivity is now enabled and open public access is available. Secure access is available for staff and our portable Square reader for The Hub gable wall was insulated and original panels replaced. Lining paper followed for a good base.
“Finally, six sheets of wallpaper, copies of an earlier Ordnance Survey map of six inches to one mile were carefully pasted into position. This feature wall shows Grantown in the centre and the surrounding area.”
Many of the original ceiling tiles were in a poor condition, either broken or heavily stained, he reported.
“These with some difficulty were replaced with new ones. Work began on the retail space and our first unique products purchased ‘I Love Grantown-on-Spey’. Various local artisans have been approached and they will rent shelf space. We are particularly keen to have a ‘Made in Grantown’ section..”