Jan Juc SLSC clubhouse nears completion

AFTER several years of planning, fundraising and building, the new Jan Juc SLSC clubhouse is nearly complete.

The club has seen a 60 per cent growth in members over the past six years, meaning there are now almost 1,000 members at the club.

They have subsequently long outgrown their previous clubhouse, which was constructed in 1963.

Jan Juc SLSC vice president and project control group member Peter Smith was one of the club members to instigate the project.

He is excited to see the building so close to completion after all he has put towards it.

“This has been my 14-year project,” he said. “It started, like all good ideas, on the back of an envelope, with a few friends sitting around. I said: ‘You know at some point we have to rebuild this club. It won’t be this year or next year or the year after, but if we don’t start we’ll never get there.’

“So we travelled the journey of attempting to get funding, which is most challenging. And then when we got part of the funding, the initial plans that were proposed had to be changed because the cost of construction had risen so dramatically.”

The club received the first piece of funding in 2014 when the RACV donated $150,000 to the project.

In January 2017, the federal government pledged $2 million, with the state government pledging the same amount a few months later. In June 2017, the Surf Coast Shire council also committed $250,000. The clubhouse is expected to cost about $6.5 million in total.

Jan Juc SLSC members are eager to start using their new building. This is certainly the case for the Scammell family, who are among the club’s most dedicated volunteers.

Together, Steve and Amanda, and their sons Jason and Adam contributed 269 hours of lifesaving over the previous season. Steve and Amanda’s daughter Sarah is also in the Nippers program.

Steve Scammell said the new clubhouse would be a significant improvement for club members as well as the wider community.

“Probably one of the greatest benefits we’ll get is having one training room so that we can easily offer courses to make sure people are skilled and trained correctly as a lifesaver.

“There are more courses available, and so regularly we’ve had to book in with other clubs. But now we’ve got the space, we’ll be able to have other clubs come to us. We have a large number of trainers at our club, so it will not only be a real benefit to our members but also members at other clubs.

“The other exciting bit about the clubhouse is that it’s not just for the club, it’s going to be a venue that will be available for community use. So, that’s really exciting to have a venue in the Torquay/Jan Juc area that has such a great outlook and will benefit so many community groups.

Mr Smith said while there was no exact date for when the club will move in, work on the new building was very close to completion.

“In non-COVID times, we would be within three weeks of being able to occupy. We’ve got some finishing activity to do, and then we’ll be ready to move in.”