HomeMy WebLinkAbout112425 email Community CenterALERT: BE CAUTIOUS This email originated outside the organization. Do not open attachments or click on links if you are not expecting them.
Dear County Commissioners,
I am concerned about our Community Center. In the budget balancing process, I ask that you avoid any choice that would further jeopordize the maintenance and access to that building.
In the winter, any slight snowfall closes the gymnasium because of roof issues. I thought I saw the roof repair in the 2025 budget, but here we are nearly to Thanksgiving with no work
done on the roof. As I do my Zumba, I observe the cracks in the ceiling covering and the unrepaired staircase on the north side of the building. I sure you must undertand that deferred
maintenance tends to make everything get worse and cost more in the long run.
The Community Center is a critical asset to our greater Jefferson County. The building provides meeting space, gymnasium, senior meals, rest rooms, recreation space. The Friends of the
Library hold book sales there, too. It serves as the center for our Zumba dance exercise community, one of the most affordable exercise programs in the county. It is the community gahtering
space uptown during Farmers Market days and during the Rhody and Uptown Street Fair parades. My many years in the community include remembering how the gymnasium was transformed into
a theater for the Port Townsend Film Festival. At one time the Community Center housed the Food Bank distribution too. I can see in my mind’s eye the children enjoying the recreation
space in the lower floor, providing them entertainment and play together in a clean and enriching environment.
Please protect this key asset by continuing to fund it at current levels. It probably deserves more than it already receives.
Valerie Brewster Caldwell
1036 Tremont Street
Port Townsend