Community centers offer a sense of place

Grandview wants a new community center.

Sunnyside wants to reopen one. So does Wapato. And an incoming city councilwoman in Toppenish is lobbying for a new one.

While Yakima Valley cities are cutting back on parks and recreation and other quality-of-life measures, there's also a renewed interest in community centers.

Proponents say the facilities offer a single place for a variety of activities and programs.

"We like to think of a community center as being a potluck of social, health and recreational activities that enhances the quality of life for a community," said Mike Carpenter, parks and recreation director in Grandview, which is proposing a new community center.

Community centers can provide a sense of place and civic pride, said Annabel Kirschner, a rural sociologist and director of Washington State University Thurston County Extension.

"Every community has a sense of its own identity," she said.

But Kirschner also cautioned that the state's tight financial picture may make it difficult for communities to obtain financial help for new centers. She also warned city leaders considering a new center to assess potential users first. They may find they don't need a new community center.

"If the libraries are good enough, if the schools are good enough, maybe you don't need a specific spot," Kirschner said.

She wasn't surprised to hear Sunnyside and Wapato opened centers in the past decade, only to close them for lack of operating funds.

Most state grants help pay for construction, but not for ongoing maintenance and staffing.

"Sometimes donors have more enthusiasm for getting something off the ground and going," Kirschner said.

Carpenter and other Grandview leaders say they have thought of that.

Early next year they plan to seek state money to build a new community center. They plan to operate it using existing city funds. They do not plan to seek a bond measure, Carpenter said.

There's no estimated construction cost yet, but the city could seek more than $1 million in grants, Carpenter said.

The community center will take the place of the city's senior center, currently home to a weekly Yakima County lunch program, dances and potlucks. However, the city sold its senior center to Yakima Valley Community College this year and set aside the $360,000 in proceeds toward a new community center.

Many seniors objected, fearing loss of a place of their own and bristling at the notion of maybe sharing space with rowdy teenagers. (Carpenter has been known to organize middle school dodgeball games.)

Don Thomas, president of the Grandview Seniors Club, was one of them but says he's changed his mind.

Thomas has been a senior center member for 27 years. Twice-monthly dances are among his favorite activities.

"I'm 89 and I still dance. Most of the days I feel pretty good," he said.

Carpenter envisions the center being home to senior dances, open gymnasium, dance classes, an adult walking program and health fairs -- all city-sponsored activities currently scattered throughout town.

"There's something there for everyone," Carpenter said.

Staffing would be handled with two existing parks and
recreation employees, Carp-enter said. The money for utilities would come from the savings when those em-ployees leave their current office on Wine Country Road and seniors leave the current senior center.

Operating costs

Sunnyside and Wapato both learned that building a community center is only half the battle. Operating is another story.

Last year, Sunnyside closed its South First Street community center and scrapped its recreation program for lack of funding. In 2006, Wapato closed its community center after political squabbles over who should run it and financial limitations.

Hope may spring anew, however.

In Sunnyside, the youth outreach nonprofit Sunnyside's Promise is working with the city to reopen and operate the center.

Sunnyside's Promise executive director Mark Baysinger has a list of ambitious programs for the place, which includes meeting rooms, an office and a gymnasium. He's working on a music recording mentorship, amateur boxing and an intervention program that sends former gang members to the scenes of shootings to help discourage victims from retaliating.

"There's all kinds of possibilities for that community center," he said.

Baysinger believes it could happen in a few months.

Mayor Paul Garcia thinks it might take longer. The City Council needs to clearly spell out what activities it wants at the center.

For example, would it allow alcohol?

Community centers are typically rented for wedding receptions and other parties to generate revenue.

"We are a conservative community, so that may not be the answer," Garcia said.

In Wapato, a 22-year-old employee at the Campbell Farm has rounded up a group of volunteer board members for a reopened center and is applying for state nonprofit status.

Josh Guidry works as a program assistant at the Campbell Farm, a Presbyterian mission site. He also owns a mobile laser tag company and may use that to attract attention. He also plans to start dodgeball and other activities.

"Just because you have a community center doesn't mean they're going to show up," he said.

Guidry said the place would first be staffed by volunteers, an arrangement that won't work forever.

"Sooner or later, you get what you pay for," he said.

Rental revenue

Selah, Zillah and Yakima have managed to keep their centers open for years.

Selah spends only about $25,000 per year operating the Selah Civic Center. The rest of its $70,000 budget comes from rental revenues. It even leaves money for Selah-based nonprofit groups to use the facility for free.

"We're aggressive as far as seeking renters," said Cassie Deatherage, the Selah Civic Center's part-time activities coordinator.

The center is home to a food bank, a used clothing ministry, a children's basketball class and a church on Sunday.

The city of Yakima pays the Occupational Industrialization Center of Washington $75,000 to run programs at the Southeast Yakima Community Center. The center survives on another $300,000 from rental revenues and outside sources such as a state social services grant and some federal economic stimulus funding.

"We have to have money from the outside," said Esther Huey, director of the center.

The center is home to a wide range of social service activities, including a foster home recruitment program and a mentoring program for children with parents in prison, as well as children's summer activities. It serves about 3,000 people per month, Huey said.

In Zillah, the city turned over operation of its Civic Center in 2003 to a collection of nonprofit groups called the Zillah Associated Clubs. In exchange, the groups get to use it when they need it.

The Zillah Senior Citizens club, for example, held its annual Thanksgiving lunch Wednesday in the building.

A committee of about eight people take two-week rotations managing the center's scheduling and budget. The day after a reception or banquet, they ensure the hall is clean, then refund the deposit.

"It's a lot of bookwork, a lot of calling, a lot of double checking," said Mo Moszeter, co-chair of the center's management committee.

Alcohol is allowed, but renters must pay an extra $200 on the deposit and must hire a private security guard.

Christina Kwan, who recently won her bid for Toppenish City Council, said Toppenish can learn from Zillah and give residents a rallying point.

"A community center is sort of like the heart of the town," she says.

* Ross Courtney can be reached at 509-930-8798 or rcourtney@yakimaherald.com.

Coming up ...

What: A Grandview City Council public hearing on a proposed community center for Country Park Event Center

When: 7 p.m. Dec. 7 at City Hall

Where: City Hall, 207 W. Second St., Grandview

More info: Residents can take a survey on the proposal by going to the city's Web site at www.grandview.wa.us or calling the Parks and Recreation Department at 509-882-9219.