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Center of controversy
Plan for Community Center
has "taken on a life of its own," Sustainable Takoma
says
BY CRAIG STONE
Construction on the Takoma
Park Community Center began in early July, and is scheduled
to be completed as currently planned by the start of 2005.
But the Community Center's original plan, its current plann,
and what the city hopes the final results will be are all
different.
As of this month, there is no money for the gym, the underground
parking, or the Victorian façade, and the community
is voicing concern that the center will bear little resemblance
to the plan they lent their support to three years ago. Howard
Kohn, president of the Citizens Liaison Committee, said the
gym, the parking garage, and the façade are all on
hold, pending money from the state and from private donors.
Kohn said that the construction company has made an agreement
with the city, which states that if the city can come up with
the $1.4 million necessary before the rest of the community
center is completed, the gym and the underground parking will
be added.
The building, if it gets a gym, would more than triple the
size of the original city hall, going from 13,000 square feet
to 40,000 square feet. It will include rooms for classes and
meetings, a reading room with card tables for seniors, a "hangout
room" with chairs and a sofa, game rooms, a dance room
that would also be used for aerobics and karate, arts rooms,
a computer lab, a performance stage, and a kitchen.
"The only two items that are delayed are the gym and
the underground parking," Kohn said.
City Manager Rick Finn said that the city council wants to
fund the completion of the façade.
The city also plans to run a fundraising campaign selling
monogram bricks, where people would pay to have a name or
a few words written on a brick. The money raised would go
toward furnishings in the community center.
The city ran into financial problems when the construction
site was discovered to lie on a floodplain. This led to the
necessity of a flood control wall to deflect drainage to another
area.
Finn said that as a result of the financial problems, the
city has already redirected $393,000 from the Open Space Program
to the community center, and they may take as much as $500,000
from the storm water fund. He also said that the contingency
fee, which is the money left available if construction costs
run over, is only five percent. A normal contingency fee would
be between 15 and 20 percent.
Sustainable Takoma, a community group created in February,
has voiced concerns about the direction in which plans are
going for the community center. Co-chair Alain Thery said
that he is worried about a number of community issues that
could arise as a result of the center, such as debt to the
city and the possibility of a mid-year rise in storm water
fees.
Thery is also concerned about the fact that there is currently
no money for a gym. The city council is "hoping for a
miracle" from private donors, he said.
"City hall is going to have new offices; we will have
a huge debt," he said."The initial idea of the community
center is sound, but it has taken on a life of its own. I
cannot conceive how it is related to the original objective."
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