Thank you for opportunity to work for the Island Corridor Foundation to cleanup and secure the Courtenay Railway Station. It was a great experience for me and I believe you will be very happy with our results. I have attached some pictures of the work we have completed.
I have a very interesting story that I would love to share with you about my experience working at the train station. My father and I spent the first week in June securing the perimeter of the building. We covered every door and window with plywood except for the main entrance that has a metal grate door.
The second week we went back to the train station to clean the inside of the building. When we went in I noticed that the stairs to the attic in the loading bay had been lowered to the ground. I thought it was very interesting that the stairs were down and the previous week they were raised to the ceiling. I assumed that someone with a key had been in the building as the outside perimeter was secure.
I thought I would go up the stairs into the attic to see what was up there. I climbed the stairs to the roofline and slowly opened the big attic hatch door. The place was in complete darkness and I could not see anything in the blackness. I got my IPhone and turned on the flashlight and scanned the room. Crouched over in the corner was a homeless man… all I could see were the whites of his eyes staring back at me. It absolutely freaked me out and I ran down the stairs. We yelled at the man to come down and called the police. The poor homeless man came down from the attic with a broken backpack and a sleeping bag. He was absolutely filthy and covered in black dirt.

We asked him how he got into the building and he took us outside and pointed at a small access panel. He then pulled out a bolt and a hasp and gave it to my father. The homeless man had worked the bolt out and opened this panel. The panel was used as a coal chute in the early days to get the coal to the basement for the coal fired burner. The man had been climbing up and down the coal chute to get access to the building. We felt very sorry for the man as he slowly walked down the railway tracks. This is one crazy story that I will never forget. We secured the hatch so that it cannot be accessed again.
Our Destination Imagination Team managed to raise enough money for us to attend the Global Destination Imagination competition in Knoxville Tennessee. Our 22 gram balsa wood structure held the second highest amount of weight of 985 lbs. The first place winner of the competition held 1010 lbs.

Out of 67 teams that entered the structural design competition, our team came in first in Canada, third in North America, and fifth in the world. It was an absolutely amazing experience for our team.
I wanted to personally thank you for giving me this contract to clean up and secure the Courtenay Railway Station. The funds that I have raised helped to cover some of the expenses for my trip to the Destination Imagination Global Competition. The remaining money will go to my next adventure of travelling to Germany on a student exchange program in 2018.
Please keep me in mind if you have any further jobs or projects where you might require some help. I am always looking for opportunities in life and any help is always appreciated. Thanks.
Sincerely,
William Munro

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Len Anglin of Ironwood Shake & Tile Company and Rod Hunter Past President of the Rotary Club of Courtenay

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The Courtenay Train Station will receive some much-needed attention — starting with a new roof.
“We are going to be definitely putting a new roof on, and Rotary will do that,” says Courtenay Rotary’s Art Meyers, who is overseeing the project for Rotary. “That’s effective immediately — it rains harder inside the building than it does out.”
During an early-February tour of the heritage building, stationmaster Wayne Murphy pointed out water-damaged areas upstairs and on the main floor of the building.
He estimated the roof had been leaking for the past five or six years, and the damage was visible in numerous places on the ceilings, including one spot where light was visible through a hole.
The Island Corridor Foundation owns the building, and the foundation’s Graham Bruce explained the leaking roof was not the only problem, noting plans for a full building assessment late February or early March to see if it would be worth saving at all.
According to Meyers, that assessment showed the building is “sound,” and Courtenay Rotary is working out an agreement with Island Corridor to do some of the improvements on the building.
Meyers says the Rotary Club already has enough money to fix the roof, and plans are in motion to do so as soon as possible.
“We’re looking for good weather right now, and we’ve got some quotes that are coming in,” he says. “We will choose the contractor because we won’t be having Rotarians crawling around on a roof…so we’re just in the middle of that as we speak, and as soon as that’s approved and the Island Corridor signs off, we’re doing it.”
Rotary also plans to replace the deck on the east side of the building, which Meyers notes is in such disrepair it’s dangerous, and the whole building will receive a new coat of paint.
“We’re going to go with the absolute, exact colour that was originally there and that’s now documented across Canada,” adds Meyers, noting it will be a specific hue of red.
Meyers notes further interior improvements are a possibility as well, but that work is still being discussed with the foundation.
Although Courtenay Rotary has enough money to replace the roof, it will be busy fundraising for the other repairs.
The club’s annual online auction will be a main fundraiser for the project, as well as for the next phase of the Rotary Trail, which runs alongside the railway tracks.
The auction runs from April 1 to 30, and features many items to bid on including a townhouse. For more information on the auction visit www.clubrunner.ca/courtenay.
Built in 1914, the station was given heritage status by the City of Courtenay in 2002, and some sort of centennial celebration is expected next year.
Meyers notes the train station improvements are part of a joint effort between the City of Courtenay and Rotary, with help from Deborah Griffiths from the Courtenay Museum, “to beautify the whole area around there.” He says the project will include murals on the buildings that back onto the train station site, too.
“So (the train station repairs will) be in keeping with upgrading the entire area, and making it a true heritage site,” he says, adding Rotary wants to take special care to ensure the train station is fixed up in time for it’s hundredth anniversary.
“It is a heritage building and we’re going to certainly make sure that it’s there for the next 100 years.”

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