NEWBERRY — The Boy Scouts of America Troop One hut, located in Margaret Hunter Park, was heavily damaged by a fire in 2014, which meant the Scouts had to find other locations to meet.
But now, after a swap with the City of Newberry, the Scouts will have a meeting place once again.
“When the old Boy Scout Hut was destroyed by fire in 2014 the City of Newberry was generous enough to swap the old Boy Scout Hut land for an abandoned Girl Scout Hut in the same park,” said Scott Cain, president of the Rotary Club of Newberry. “We have worked hand in hand with the City Newberry and Troop One to completely renovate the old Girl Scout Hut into a modern facility that will serve the scouting tradition for a long time to come.”
The Girl Scout Hut had been sitting vacant for a few years and the city no longer had a use for it. Mayor Foster Senn said the swap made sense, since the Rotary Club could make use of the building.
“We went and asked them (the city). Foster, who is also in Rotary, brokered a deal with Al Harvey and we just swapped the land,” Cain said.
Part of the deal was for Rotary to clear the debris out of the old hut.
“They said if we fix it up (Girl Scout Hut) and use it, it will be a community service,” Cain said.
Now that the City of Newberry owns the land where the old hut was, Foster said he would like to upgrade the park down the road, maybe by making the disc golf course bigger.
“The timing is also good because Newberry College is fixing up Speers Street School, and I think they will be a good neighbor of Speers Street,” he said.
Since taking over the Girl Scout Hut, Rotary has done work on the ceiling, floors and air conditioning. Cain said the work was all done by local contractors. The work has been a joint effort with the Troop.
“We wanted the Scouts to have a voice,” Cain said.
The new hut is bigger than the Boy Scout’s old location, something Cain says is a good thing, because there are five groups in the Troop.
Troop One has five dens: Tigers (first grade), Wolves (second grade), Bears (third grade), Webelos One (fourth grade) and Webelos two (fifth grade).
While each den meets separately, they meet once a month for a pack meeting. Parents and siblings attend pack meetings and this is when badges and awards are presented.
The Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts will use the same building, Cain said, adding that there will be plenty of room for half of the building to be decorated for the Girl Scouts and the other for the Boy Scouts. The downstairs area will be used for storage.
“This is a great space,” Cain said. “I would like to have Rotary board meetings here. It will keep us in tune with what Scouts are doing. There should be a place like this that allows everybody to come.”