The Kalk Bay community centre is looking pristine again after some TLC.
Mervyn Taub, a member of the Kalk Bay community centre committee, said its last lick of paint was in the 1990s.
The recent painting and clean-up was organised solely by people using the hall for a range of activities, including yoga, dance and art classes.
“We understand that because of the drought the City has no budget for these projects, so we raised the money ourselves,” Mr Taub said.
The committee, with the help of the Special Ratings Area and the Kalk Bay and St James Residents’ and Ratepayers’ Association and the community groups who use the hall, raised R45 000 – and then organised a contractor to do the work.
Mr Taub said the colours were chosen to as closely resemble the building’s original look.
In St James, on the City’s information roadside information boards, which tell the history of the area, is a photograph of the original building. It is described as the ornate face of what was then a sewage pump station, opened in 1906.
The KBMM insignia at the top of the building stands for Kalk Bay Muizenberg Municipality, from a time when Muizenberg was still considered to be part of Kalk Bay.
Since then, the building has been a primary school and a library, and it serves as the office for the Special Ratings Area for St James and Kalk Bay.
It still has its original lights out front which the committee is trying to restore.
The gardens are tended by various volunteers.
Ward councillor Aimee Kuhl thanked everyone who had had a hand in giving the hall a makeover.
“In times of ever-increasing budget cuts and over-burdened infrastructure, the City greatly appreciates this deed of active citizenship,” she said.
