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Cayucos Vet’s Hall Has ‘Structural Issues’

By Neil Farrell ~

The Historic Cayucos Vet’s Hall has been discovered to have “structural issues” but remains open for now, as County officials assess the extent of the damage and develop a work plan for fixing it.

Supervisor Gibson certainly understands the great importance of the Vets Hall to the Cayucos community and hopes that it can remain open while we develop a longer term plan. Our first concern, of course is the safety of the public and everyone who uses the Hall and we take that responsibility seriously.

Cherie McKee

For several days rumors had been spreading on Facebook that the Vet’s Hall, which was first built as part of Capt. James Cass’ “Cass Landing” and was originally a warehouse for his shipping business, had been condemned, causing much consternation among people who have reserved the hall for special events and weddings.

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Dist. 2 Supervisor Bruce Gibson confirmed with The Bay News that issues had been discovered with the circe-1870s building.

“We have an engineer’s report that indicates some structural issues with the Vets Hall,” Gibson said in an email. “I’m meeting with a number of staff this afternoon [Friday, April 29] to find out exactly what problems have been identified and what exactly we have to do about them.”

In a follow-up, Gibson’s assistant Cherie McKee said the building has not been “red tagged” at this time and the County’s chief building inspector was slated to formally inspect the Hall on Monday, May 2 and work up a report on the damage and the extent of the fixes that need to be made.

“Supervisor Gibson certainly understands the great importance of the Vets Hall to the Cayucos community,” McKee said, “and hopes that it can remain open while we develop a longer term plan. Our first concern, of course is the safety of the public and everyone who uses the Hall and we take that responsibility seriously.”

County Deputy Public Works Director Dave Flynn said the building has not been “condemned” and they are working on the engineering analyses before coming up with a working plan.

The Hall, which is leased to the Cayucos Lions Club for management purposes, is quite busy and the event calendar on the Club’s Vet’s Hall webpage (see: www.cayucosvetshall.org) shows it booked most weekends through the end of November.

“Our office did alert our lease agreement unit to forewarn the Lions Club of pending need to halt use for concern about restrictions,” Flynn said, “but no immediate halt to using it is being directed. We’ll be sending out more information on this next week once we compile more information.”

When the County set about to rebuild the equally historic Cayucos Pier, it removed a patio that straddles between the Pier and Vet’s Hall, with the intent to rebuild it as a wrap-around structure connecting the Hall’s rear courtyard. Also, the siding on the western facing wall was removed and covered with new Tyvek house wrap (an air and water barrier used on most new construction and repair jobs), but new siding had not been put back up.

It was apparently during this work that the structural issues were discovered, as the building has not been sealed up since the pier work was completed. The pier was reopened Oct. 31, 2015.

Though more than 100 years old, the Vet’s Hall has been kept up pretty well. It is the cultural heart of the community having hosted weddings, parties, masquerade balls, rock ‘n’ roll shows, the Sea Glass Festival, the Annual Portuguese Festival, and is the home for meetings of the Cayucos Sanitary District Board, among countless other uses. It’s come a long way since being a warehouse for dairy and farm products that Capt. Cass shipped north and south via coastal steamships.

Flynn added, “Yes, this is a very old structure and has several components to address [which takes time to assess]. If all checks out or some means to address the structure can be had, then we would not seek to place the building out of service.

“However, there will be a need at some point to upgrade the structure to enhance its overall condition. This construction would have impacts to its use but could be pursued at a scheduled time.”

McKee said Gibson was going to give an update to the Cayucos Citizens Advisory Council at its meeting set for 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 4 in the Vet’s Hall.