Village house De Trefkoel in Gasselte is on the eve of a major renovation and expansion. According to residents of the village, the more than fifty-year-old building no longer meets today’s requirements and deserves an upgrade.
New toilets, more storage space, a better meeting room, a larger entrance: the wish list of the board of the village hall is long. But all those adjustments are necessary, says chairman Jaap Hadderingh, to make De Trefkoel accessible to the entire village in the future.
For people with a walker or a mobility scooter, entering is not very convenient, because there are no automatic doors. “If people come here, you have to hope that someone is at the door to keep it open. And if you try it yourself, you will soon have the door against your heels,” says Hadderingh.
The entrance is by no means the only ‘defect’. According to the chairman, the village hall now mainly consists of ‘a lot of cubicles’. Overcrowded storage areas are scattered throughout the building and there is no logical walking route to all facilities.
“If we want to go to the conference room, we now have to go through the gymnasium or the bar room. If volleyball is just being played there or the music association is practicing, then that is very disturbing. The building is simply outdated.”