Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Many years in the making, the doors are about to open for the new Palouse Community Center Building.
“We got the keys yesterday,” Community Center board secretary Janet Barstow said Friday.
Volunteers rolled in appliances for the kitchen.
The finishing touches conclude a construction phase which began with a groundbreaking ceremony last August.
“It’s been fabulous,” said Barstow. “We’ve got two rentals already in January, but first before we rent it is the grand opening. Everybody has been peeking in the windows. We want everyone to see it.”
The 3,900-square-foot community center building is sided with galvanized steel, masonry and hardy-plank. The contractor, Walker Construction of Spokane, will return in the spring to touch-up paint and seal masonry in proper weather conditions.
“It’s been a very fun and interesting project,” said board president Scott Beeson. “And probably about as seamless as could possibly be.”
Pending a health department inspection, the day-long Jan. 14 grand opening is the event the town has been looking to.
A $150,000 loan still needs to be paid off.
The operation of the center will be funded by Needful Things, a community second-hand store which is moving in this week and will open Thursday.
Shop proceeds range from $700 to $800 per month.
The community center opens with five charter organizations who helped with the fund campaign. They have donated in excess of $1,000.
In return, they receive half off rental rates, and a seat on the community center board. Original charter members include the Palouse Lions Club, Palouse Round Table, Palouse Arts Council, Council on Aging and the Xenodican Club.
The $530,000 building was built entirely by donations and fund raising projects. Some of the contributions came from subcontractors. Shawnee Rock donated $2,000 worth of gravel and Carlson’s Plumbing of Pullman donated labor.
Inland Northwest Community Foundation covered the $20,000 cost for installation of heating and air conditioning units.
The project in August 2010 received a $100,000 donation from the family of the late Ray Hanson. It was one of 629 individual cash donations, since the official kickoff fundraising letter went out in July 2008.
Aside from individuals, the bulk of the center’s cost was raised by major fundraising events such as Haunted Palouse, Lions Club bingo/silent auctions and the pig roast at the bluegrass festival.
Haunted Palouse has brought in over $80,000 for the cause since 2004.
“There were quite a few memorials too,” said Barstow. Families of deceased residents asked any memorials be donated to the project.
“But it wasn’t just the financial donations,” said Barstow. “It’s all the people that helped with any of the fundraising events. It is a true community center. Built by the city of Palouse but also the larger Palouse community.”
Before that first fundraising letter went out, the center was in the dream stage for quite some time.
From 1986-2007, Palouse had a community center located in the present location of Open Eye Consignment which is next door to the new building. The old building needed work and it was eventually deemed impractical to continue to spend the money for repairs and upgrades.
“I’m very excited for the new building’s opening,” said Bev Pearce, current board member and past president of the center board. She noted her friends have been telling her to calm down.
Pearce and Paula Echanove began the Needful Things store in 2002 as a fundraiser for the building.
The board’s work will now shift from a construction mode to operations.
“Now that it’s built, we have new priorities,” said Beeson.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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