The quest to get a community center built in a joint effort with the marine technology skills center has hit snag after snag even as the proposal has changed to accommodate problems that have come up.
“It is so disappointing to our community that we can’t seem to support a center when communities smaller than ours manage to,” said Bev Martin, member of the community group DASH working on the proposed center.
It was not a marriage made in heaven, said architect Bryan Young of trying to fit the two organizations’ plans together.
Young is working with the Northwest Career and Technical Academy, formerly called the Skagit County Technical Skills Center, on the design of the marine skills center going on the Port of Anacortes’ Parcel 1 south of the Cap Sante Boat Haven.
DASH’s original proposal was to increase the size of the school’s assembly hall to accommodate approximately 300 people for community events rather than only 150 students.
The school plans an assembly area of approximately 1,800 square feet.
To accommodate banquets of 300, the assembly area would need an additional 4,000 square feet, plus a 1,500-square-foot foyer and 750-square foot kitchen to meet the requirements of larger events.
Funds for the facility would be provided by the Academy only up to the point of its original assembly hall plan. The rest of the funds would come from grants, fundraising and donations organized by DASH.
The group proposed the port operate the facility once it is built.
The NCTA design team evaluated the impact of expanding the assembly area and concluded it was not feasible, DASH said. The size of the proposed expansion could compromise the build schedule, design and costs of the school.
The second proposal to add on to the facility some time in the future seemed more promising. But it was also scrapped due to similar problems, which included possibly interfering with the skills center opening by September 2010.
When the second proposal was scrapped, the design team suggested an alternative solution — get support from the port to locate a separate building on Parcel 1 adjacent to the school.
However, because a community center is not in the port’s short-term or even long-term plans and because the port cannot fund such a facility with tax dollars, that idea was also scrapped, Young said.
The project would also be difficult to fit on Parcel 1 elsewhere due to the sheer size, said Port Executive Director Bob Hyde.
The Anacortes Chamber of Commerce told the port it was against the idea of a community center being built and operated with public rather than private funds — the reason being that taxpayers could be footing the bill if it isn’t successful in at least breaking even.
DASH, which stands for the dash between the date a person is born and the date of death and the importance of how that time is spent, explores ways to give back to the community, Martin said.
The group is still compiling results from a survey it recently circulated asking the community its thoughts on a community center.
Preliminary results indicated most people saw a need for larger meeting facilities accommodating an average of 300 people. Many organizations limit the number of participants to annual events because of limited meeting space.
Venues available now in Anacortes include the First Baptist Church, which has room for 260 people in a banquet capacity.
Smaller venues include the port’s main warehouse, St. Mary Catholic Church, Brodniak Hall, the Samish Fidalgo Bay clubhouse and convention center and the Depot Arts Center.
DASH meets the first Thursday of each month. At the next meeting, Martin said members will discuss where they will go from here with the community center proposal. Call 420-0843 for more information.
In the meantime, a presentation of a schematic design of the marine skills center is expected to go before the Academy board at its August meeting.
