White Cliff School A Potential
Site For
Multigenerational Community Center
April 29, 2005
Friday
Ketchikan, Alaska - Ketchikan
Senior Center Services and Ketchikan Area Arts and Humanities
Council announced Thursday that they have reached an agreement
to jointly study White Cliff School as the potential site to
develop a multigenerational community center. The groups say
such a center would bring together senior activities and arts
programming in a model of community revitalization.
Umbrella organizations for
senior interests and arts interests respectively, Ketchikan Senior
Center Services and Ketchikan Area Arts and Humanities Council
previously identified White Cliff School as their preferred site
and recognized the many benefits that would come from collaborating
on a joint facility.
White Cliff School
File Photo by Dick Kauffman
This agreement is a milestone in the process that was begun in
December 2004, when Historic Ketchikan undertook community wide
efforts to identify an adaptive reuse of White Cliff School that
would preserve the building as a vibrant community presence.
Community wide efforts by Historic Ketchikan recognized the pressing
facilities needs of both senior and arts programs and fostered
the collaboration between Ketchikan Senior Center Services and
Ketchikan Area Arts and Humanities Council.
On March 21, 2005, the Ketchikan
Gateway Borough (KGB) passed Resolution No. 1789 endorsing these
groups' intention to prepare a plan for the White Cliff property.
This resolution also instructed borough staff to enter into an
agreement with the Ketchikan Area Arts and Humanities Council
to provide access to the White Cliff property for the purposes
of preparing that plan.
Ketchikan Senior Center Services
and Ketchikan Area Arts and Humanities Council have also agreed
to jointly fund a contract with a qualified professional group
to assess the White Cliff School property. They say the assessment
will provide evaluation, cost, schematic plans and other data
necessary for the organizations to determine the feasibility
of operating the facility and the organizational capacity to
contribute to on-going facility operations. The request for proposal
deadline is May 9, 2005. At that time, a committee designated
through the Ketchikan Senior Center Services and Ketchikan Area
Arts and Humanities Council agreement will review and select
the preferred proposal.
Alaire Stanton, Board Member,
Ketchikan Senior Center Services and Sara Lawson, Executive Director,
Ketchikan Area Arts & Humanities Council speaking on behalf
of their organizations stated in a release:
"At this milestone in
the project, we gratefully recognize the efforts and dedication
of many individuals, governmental agencies, and local organizations.
We particularly want to thank Historic Ketchikan for their vision
and perseverance to see that the White Cliff School building
remain a vital community facility, the Ketchikan Gateway Borough
for the funding to keep the facility stable while we work to
develop a plan and the City of Ketchikan for their utilities
support and early financial support of an Art Center. We look
forward to the continued support of all those who have been so
integral in the process of making this grass roots effort flourish.
We invite the citizens of the community to continue to provide
input as we work toward our next milestone."
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