Three residents of Norg have started a petition to keep the local drugstore for the village. Druggist Ina Cuperus’ lease expires at the end of this year and she fears she will have to leave her building. A signature campaign to keep her in Norg has already been signed more than a thousand times.
The butcher and a Chinese restaurant are already gone and the pet shop will also close soon. In Norg, residents now fear that they will lose another facility if the drugstore also has to close. Much is still unclear about the store’s continued existence.
The fact is that the building at Oosteind is in serious need of a makeover. There is still only glass in the window frames, the floor and ceiling have sagged and there is clear water damage visible at the front door. The owner of the building, who does not want to be named, would therefore like to renovate the building. Cuperus must make way for this. But so far the tenant and landlord have not been able to reach an agreement.
“My landlord has another use for the building, so I have to leave,” says Cuperus. The landlord has a different reading. “All we want is to renovate the building. She (Cuperus ed.) just doesn’t want to leave temporarily.” When asked about the possibility of the drugstore returning after the renovation, the building owner responds that it is ‘certainly still a possibility’. He consigns rumors about conversations with another druggist to the realm of fables.
In any case, the initiators of the petition want the Cuperus drugstore to remain in Norg. According to regular customer Herma Elsinga, the drugstore is more than just a store. “The elderly in particular often drop by for a chat. It really is a meeting place. We don’t want a facility to disappear again,” says Elsinga. Cuperus adds: “People don’t go to the drugstore, but people really go to Ina.”
If the druggist does leave, there are not many places in Norg where she can go again. There are hardly any empty buildings and certainly none with lots of parking and sufficient space. Cuperus and the initiators of the petition now turn their hopes to the municipality of Noordenveld to help find a solution for the drugstore.
Councilor Jos Darwinkel (Municipal Interests) emphasizes that this is a private matter between tenant and landlord, but he does want to offer a helping hand. “We do not have a number of buildings here on the street where the drugstore can go. But we could perhaps mediate between Ina and the landlord. We also see the importance of this facility,” says Darwinkel.
See below why Ina Cuperus wants to stay in Norg so much.
