The restoration of mill De Berk on the Veenpark in Barger-Compascuum has almost been completed. Yet the work of the mill maker is stopping, and that is not due to a lack of commitment, but due to a lack of money, trust and contact. “We are at the mill every week, but we never see director Harrie Keuter,” says volunteer Klaas Renting. “He just has to come by.”
Molenmaker Guus Zantinga is still waiting for a payment of more than 20,000 euros. He is almost done with the job, but he will not continue without payment. The volunteers try to save what can be saved. “If the park does not pay, then we will do it ourselves, from our own pocket,” says Klaas Renting. “We don’t let that man get the victim.”
Nevertheless, Keuter states in a written statement that the payment problem is somewhere else. He indicates that the volunteers gave the mill maker extra work, without this being agreed with the Veenpark in advance. According to him there is one of the causes of the payment arrears.
The volunteers are dumbfounded. “He knew what had to be done,” says Renting. “There was indeed a bit of additional work at the time, I think that was about tracing the rods. But that was simply discussed with Keuter at the time. And we know that more than enough money has arrived for the mill, through donations, subsidies and funds. The mill would be on roses financially and even there must be money.”
The biggest pain for the volunteers is the absence of contact. Renting: “We are not hearing. Keuter will discuss with his staff, but we almost never see him appear here at the mill. While we work voluntarily here every Wednesday afternoon, for almost three years.” Keuter was not available for a response to this reproach.
In his written statement he cites another point of friction: the volunteers have set up a foundation to arrange the management of the mill itself. According to Keuter, that was all the plan of the Veenpark itself. But the fact that it happened without consultation, he calls ‘remarkable’. “It is similar to someone who decides to maintain the house of another.”
Renting reacts shocked: “We did that because it all takes so long.”
The volunteers work with all love together with the Veenpark, please even, but then there must be talk. And Keuter also wants that: “We invite everyone involved to discuss differences in good consultation.”
In the meantime, the last job of the mill maker, the replacement of the neckstone, is standing still. The money is there, the volunteers say. Because they have the household booklet, according to them, accurately in order to the cent.
Although the Veenpark thinks differently. “With a project like this there are also costs that volunteers have no insight into or influence. The final responsibility for management and subsidy accounts lies with the Veenpark,” says Keuter.
Renting concludes: “Throwing mud makes no sense, we have to go around the table.”