KINGSTON — The Kingston Community Center Building, closed after a car crashed through a lower-floor window and wall April 16, is expected to cost the county between $5,000 and $7,000 to repair, Kitsap County Parks Superintendent Dori Leckner said.
With the exception of the senior center, the building was expected to reopen April 25.
Three people were injured when a car crashed through a window on the ground-level of the community center. The 92-year-old driver and her 88-year-old passenger, both Kingston residents, were transported to Harrison Medical Center. A senior center patron was released after being treated at the scene, according to North Kitsap Fire & Rescue spokeswoman Michelle Laboda.
Neither of the women transported to Harrison is thought to have suffered serious injury, Laboda said. The third woman, seated for lunch, was treated at the scene after she was hit by flying glass in the crash. The other 11 lunch guests denied treatment or transport.
The building houses the senior center and the Kingston branch of the Kitsap Regional Library.
Kitsap County’s Department of Community Development inspected the building and checked its structural integrity.
The result: “We have received word from Kitsap County, owner of the Kingston Community Center Building, that the building will be ready for occupancy on Thursday, April 25,” reported Jeff Brody, director of community relations for Kitsap Regional Library.
“The Kingston branch library will reopen on Thursday, regular hours (1-5 p.m.). The library is located on the upper level of the community center.”
Kingston library patrons were able to pick up materials they had on hold at the Little Boston branch library through April 23. On April 24, those materials were to be moved to Kingston, Brody said.
The Chuckwagon Senior Luncheon in the Kingston Library and Community Center was sitting for lunch when the sedan crashed through a bottom-floor window of the building at 12:02 p.m.
The hood of the four-door car went into the senior center, which is housed below ground level.
Flossie Mulhair was among the group of people preparing for lunch when the car went through the window. Mulhair described the sound of the car going through the window as a loud “boom.”
The car’s driver and passenger remained inside the car, which had apparently jumped a parking curb and knocked over a wrought-iron fence to become buried in the window up to its windshield.
According to the Sheriff’s Department, the driver said she was pulling into the disabled and “must have hit the gas instead of the brake pedal.” There is a parking lot outside the community center, on the same side of the building as the senior center.
Washington State Patrol troopers and Kitsap County Sheriff’s deputies went to the scene. Iowa Avenue, between State Route 104 and NE 1st Street, was closed for about two hours.
