County funds boost Civic Center expansion project

By Rodika Tollefson
KP News
 

The Key Peninsula Civic Center Association will receive up to $20,000 from Pierce County toward an expansion project that will double the space for Children’s Home Society/Key Peninsula Family Resource Center. The funds will help pay for the engineering and architectural design of the project, which is estimated to cost about $1 million.

“Terry Lee was the Pierce County council member who really spearheaded and identified this money,” said Jud Morris, KPFRC director. “He was also very instrumental in assisting us in dealing with our staffing budget (with another $20,000 appropriation) for 2007.”

Phil Bauer and Roy Danforth are working on wiring and painting the room that will soon be used by Children’s Home Society.  Photo by Colleen Slater

Lee said the Civic Center and Children’s Home Society are part of several organizations that will receive county funding in 2007. “All us council members look for projects in the community we want to support,” he said.

The expansion will include both the first and the second floor of the wing where Children’s Home Society is located. The agency would then be able to improve space for its staff, accommodate more workers, and allow for client privacy. The expansion will push the wall out about 20 feet south of the tennis court. The second floor could be used by the KPCCA to add new activities, or possibly accommodate a Boys and Girls Club (see related story, page 2).

Morris said the project would be funded by private and public money. The agency will apply for state matching grants as well as private donors and foundations.

The expansion is part of a larger effort to remodel the building, which was originally built in the early 1900s as a school. KPCCA outgoing President Phil Bauer said in December that the board of directors planned to replace gutters and paint the outside this year, and later start work on the inside. The entryway will also be remodeled, including an increase in size, the widening and covering of the wheelchair-access ramp and adding a sitting area on the expanded porch. Bauer said the KPCCA will apply for a grant from the Cheney Foundation and hopes to start the entryway project by this summer.

The KPFRC expansion could also start in the first part of this year and continue for an estimated two years. In the meantime, the KPCCA has been remodeling a storage space and converting it into a conference room that will allow Children’s Home Society to add new staff as soon as that conversion is complete. 

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