November 1 — Community center plans are still in progress

Sumner Arts Commission hosts a second meeting to discuss the future of a community center in town

Roxanne Cooke / of the Herald

Members of Sumner’s Arts Commission, city officials and community members continued discussing plans last weekend for a community center in Sumner.

The group met for the first time on Sept. 29 for an initial brainstorming session and scheduled the second meeting to give members and city officials some time to tour local community centers and report back.

Mayor Dave Enslow and City Administrator John Doan visited the Lakewood Boys and Girls Club and the Mel Korum Family YMCA on South Hill prior to the session. Both noted that the YMCA was more family-centered and the Boys and Girls Club seemed more about just youth coming in before and after school.

The South Hill YMCA was packed on a weekday morning, Enslow said. It’s a vibrant part of the community, he noted.

“It looked very good,” Enslow said.

Arts Commission member Jan Sanford reported back to the group about her research on the Edmonds Community Center and another center in Kirkland, which has a ceramics studio and a print making studio, among other things.

“They’re extremely proud of their program,” Sanford said of Kirkland.

All three reports initiated some more brainstorming about what Sumner’s community center should look like. Former Sumner Mayor Barbara Skinner suggested that Sumner partner with nearby cities for the project and have the center double as a convention center.

Enslow said many Sumnerites would dispute bringing in large crowds for conventions. Arts Commission Chair Cindi Hochstatter recommended if the center were to host conventions, that they be small ones.

The term “convention center” may scare people off, Sanford said.

“That is not going to fly in this community,” she said.

Instead, it might be best to keep it called a community center, even if small conventions are part of it, Sanford added. What the group decides to label it will make a huge difference.

Doan said the first step is a market study to see how the center would fit in and whether residents would use it. How the project will be funded and how much it will cost is still in question, but at the group’s first meeting, ideas included partnerships with local community college, Pierce County Library System, YMCA, Boys and Girls Club or possibly a bond issue.

“The funding is going to be the choking points on all of these things,” Skinner said.

At the first meeting, the group generated many ideas for Sumner’s community center, including having space for Daffodil Princess coronations, dedicated classroom space, an area for forums and small conventions, a gym, a kitchen, a performance stage and a food service area.

Potential locations include the center of town near City Hall, the north side of town, Valley Avenue, land north of the library, the 24th Street Interchange and some others.

A steering committee was formed at the first session, and a mission statement for the project is still in progress. The group is planning to tour area YMCAs and Boys and Girls Clubs in two weeks.

Although still at the beginning of planning, the committee hopes the final product will be something all of Sumner can take pride in.

“It’s always been proven that arts add to economic development,” Hochstatter said.