An announcement that the Santa Cruz County Veterans Memorial Hall is closing indefinitely came down abruptly on the afternoon of Thursday, Jan. 21, prompting executive director Tim Brattan to send out an email announcing that all classes and events at the hall were cancelled and that instructors and patrons should remove their belongings immediately. “If you have any stuff here we will arrange a day and time for you to retrieve it, or please try to get here before 5pm today,” the email read. “It may be early February before we can have you sign waivers to get in an [sic] get it.” When reached by phone to ask whether he had any sense of when the hall could re-open, Brattan said hurriedly, “There’s no sense. I wish there were some sense,” before excusing himself to make more calls, alerting others to the closure.
Joe Schultz, Director of Parks, Open Space and Cultural Services, says the closure was ordered after the county determined the building to be unsafe in the event of an earthquake. “Tim noticed some stucco laying on the ground. Part of the building had fallen from the high-up,” says Schultz. “Huge chunks, fist-size chunks of concrete.” After an architect and a structural engineer had a chance to examine the building on Friday, Jan. 15, they determined that the rebar inside the building walls had rusted to the point that they are no longer supporting the 1932 building. “What you’ve got is nothing but masonry holding up the sides of the building,” says Schultz. The findings also suggested that the auditorium is particularly unsafe.
All veterans services are being temporarily moved to the county’s Emeline Street building, although county spokesperson Dinah Phillips said details are still in the works. By press time, no one was answering the phones at the Veterans Services Office, but a voicemail message said that all appointments and the Disabled American Veterans van service had been cancelled for this week.
On the Friday following the rushed closure, Brattan said most people had retrieved their belongings from the building, but that he was still scrambling to help people to move their concerts, classes and other events to different spaces. Among the upcoming events were yoga classes, a benefit for Haiti and church services. “We’re just trying to mitigate all the cancellations and the heartbreak,” he said.
Looking to the future, Brattan says an architect is set to go over “every inch” of the building, but that a full report will not be ready until May 18. He speculates that any work likely wouldn’t begin until the summer and that county budget woes may be an obstacle in the renovations. As for Brattan himself, he says it’s up in the air as to what he will do in the coming months. “I’m not going anywhere until everything is paid back, rentals are equalized, people who owe money and are owed money are taken care of,” he says. “We’re going to weather it and whether I’m there or not, at some point the building will come back online and it’ll be better than ever.”
