Volunteers launch Tekoa center project

Work is underway at the Tekoa Community Center on a project funded by county .09 funds. A group of volunteers gathered Tuesday and Wednesday, April 18-19, to start demolition work on two bathrooms which will be renovated for handicapped access.

Taking out walls, ceilings and fixtures, the group worked on the two existing restrooms.

“They gutted the two that were there,” Tekoa Mayor John Jaeger reported.

The mayor indicated that city employees will install the new restrooms at the center, the former as Tekoa Jaycees' club.

Tekoa obtained permission from Whitman County commissioners to use .09 funds to pay the wages of the city workers on the project.

Mangum Construction was hired as contractor for work to come after the restrooms. They will remove a false ceiling, revamp the north wall and install new lighting.

The controversy around the project included a petition with 138 signatures and an anonymous mailing in protest to plans for how the grant money would be spent on the Community Center and Empire Theatre.

One part of the plan, creating a walkway between the Community Center and the adjacent Empire Theatre, drew objections.

Mayor Jaeger and the city council have decided the walkway will be done at the end of the project if enough of the $34,000 .09 grant remains to complete it.