Work on demolishing the old Green Door Lanes bowling alley paused last week while efforts began to salvage the old wooden lanes.
The man leading the demolition says they decided to try to save the lanes soon after he started working on tearing down the structure.
“We came in here, got place lit up, and there was a tarp over the lanes,” says Scott Grandbois. “We lifted up the tarp, and this is what we came up with.”
The “this” are four bowling lanes of bright pine and spruce wood that look like they were in use yesterday — not damaged in a fire and in a building that’s been condemned for more than a decade.
“I was amazed, I was shocked. I was one of the many people who thought the lanes were in bad shape,” says Grandbois. “That’s what the village was led to believe, that these lanes were toast, these were not salvageable.
“So it’s sat here for 12 years.”
As word spread of Grandbois’ discovery, talk began about saving the lanes.
“I got calls from prominent people that are in the loop, wondering what the hell is going on here,” he says. “They were led to believe that this was not a factor, not an option. And then they see pictures, that, as you can tell, they aren’t bad.”
Grandbois says he was persuaded to advocate for saving the lanes. He posted to Facebook, asking if anyone wanted to spend the money to have the lanes removed carefully, and stored until they could be reused in a new building.
“We need dry, indefinite storage,” he says. “We have no clue how long it’s going to take, and we need to store it in a place where we can service it.”
Grandbois has paused his demolition as he waits to hear if anyone (or group) want to foot the bill for keeping a piece of the town’s recreation heritage intact. He doesn’t mind doing that, even though it is costing him money because he’s an avid bowler too.
“I’m like everyone else in this town, I’m passionate about it,” he says. “I’ve given up a huge amount of the contract, of what I’ve been contracted to do, to bring this back to the community.”
Grandbois figures two of the lanes and two of the pin-setting machines can be saved and put into storage. If the salvage actually happens, the lanes could be incorporated into a new, $3.4-million youth centre and community complex that’s being planned for the site. But there are hurdles.
“It will all need to be restored, obviously. It will all need to be serviced,” he says. “There’s definitely need for some cooperation. It’s a non-profit organization that’s funding this. While there are grants for the project, they’ll only go so far. There’s no extra grant money to restore this, it wasn’t part of the project.”
And it’s by no means clear the town needs a bowling alley again.
“To be honest, what I understand is it wasn’t a very lucrative thing when it was going, it was not a big draw,” he says. “I don’t’ know why, but bowling has been fizzling out. There are bowling lanes closing all over the countryside. But like all trends, it will come back.”
Grandbois — an avid bowler himself — says he’s optimistic somebody with deep pockets will make it happen. He says there’s a lot of memories tied up with the bowling alley.
“We’re dealing with passion and nostalgia,” he says. “We are a town of very little, and we’ve lost so many things. This is another one of the things that was lost.
“But it needs to be handled properly. We need a certain amount of people to support it.”
Grandbois is waiting to hear from those angel investors. In the meantime, the Youth Society is holding a fundraiser on Oct. 14 and 15 to help raise money for the youth centre project.
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