County officials may survey public about proposed community center
Thursday, January 18, 2007 6:49 AM PST
By Tony Lystra
Printable version
E-mail this articleGet ready for your phone to ring with questions about a local community center -- what you want it to look like and how much you're willing to pay for it.
Elected officials from Longview, Kelso and Cowlitz County informally agreed Wednesday night to support preliminary research related to building a community center, including paying for a $16,000 phone survey to hear people's ideas about the project.
Elected officials and citizens have discussed the project for nearly a decade, but no one has acted in earnest on the idea.
Now, Longview Mayor Dennis Weber said, community leaders want to answer that time-honored complaint of the county's youth: "There's nothing to do here."
The project, Weber said, also has gained steam as the downtown Longview senior center grows and becomes short on space.
On Wednesday, in a rare -- and often casual -- meeting of the three governments, city council members and county commissioners said they have little idea of what the center would include, who it should serve, where it should be built, how much it would cost and who should pay for it.
"Are people going to be saying, I'd like to go skydiving and have a motocross track when we can't afford that kind of stuff?" County Commissioner Axel Swanson asked.
"Is it going to be teens arm wrestling with seniors?" asked Commissioner George Raiter.
"Did you say senior Jell-O wrestling?" Longview Councilman Don Jensen asked.
Someone in the audience groaned.
The loose idea is to have a place where senior citizens and youth would congregate, with, perhaps, a gymnasium, exercise room and swimming pool. The vacant lot on Seventh Avenue in Longview, across from the Cowlitz County fairgrounds, has been discussed as an ideal spot. A local grange has opposed that idea, saying the space is needed for parking during the summer fair.
Kelso City Councilman Al Slater suggested the center could be built in the shuttered Sinnett's Market Place where Ocean Beach Highway meets Washington Way in West Kelso.
Officials also questioned how best to pitch the idea to county voters who have repeatedly rejected taxes to fight drugs and crime and build a new jail. (Commissioners opened a new lockup last year anyway.)
"I feel like the people think that they get a lot of stuff shoved down their throats," Kelso Councilman Dave Futcher said.
Rich Bemm, who oversees the Longview-Kelso Parks and Recreation Department, suggested the governments hire a consulting firm to survey at least 500 people about the project.
The survey, Bemm said, would cost as much as $16,000. The three governments would pay for it.
Weber said city councils and county commissioners could decide whether to conduct the survey by mid-February.
The officials also discussed developing a task force to research the project and hiring a consultant to conduct additional studies at a cost of $44,000. Most blanched at the price, even as they favored exploring the center's prospects.
"We're all finally together and talking about it," Jensen said. "It would be a real shame, with the economy on the upswing, to throw this thing away. ... I, for one, want to give it a shot."
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