 By Tyrell Rettke October 22, 2007
After reading the article in the Daily News, as well as hearing from a few people on the matter, I thought it necessary to clarify a few things with regard to the recent City Council meeting, and the "Water Warehouse" building, and the two groups seeking to utilize it. The article in the paper, as well as public testimony given at the city council meeting, made some people think there is a partnership between Creekside Meeting Center and Ketchikan Area Arts and Humanities Council. This is not the case, and I thought it prudent to clarify that point. The people who spoke at the meeting repeatedly referred to our (CMC's) openness to working together, and to utilizing the space for many things that could include the same or similar things that KAAHC's vision of the building had as well. This is all that was intended by the comments, not to infer an official relationship, only that we are all one community and are open to ideas and working together to building the space into a real community location. Over the last 8 months, CMC has been meeting with various people to determine the costs of retrofitting the building to bring it up to code, and to make it useable for the things we had envisioned for it. During these months, it was not prudent to bring the plans to the city, until they had been fully formed. KAAHC's letter to the city prompted several meetings, and further discussion was deemed to be needed. The presentation of the letter to the city at the recent meeting forced our hand to provide our own letter and presentation. There has not been, through out the last few weeks that this issue arose, any hostile feelings on CMC's or KYI's part toward KAAHC or its members, and it has never and will never be our intent to step on anyone's toes. It is my sincere hope that we can work together for this location as it will be a valuable asset to the community no matter which group or a combined effort of the two put into it. Tyrell Rettke Received October 22, 2007 - Published October 22, 2007
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