County to permanently close portions of Silverdale Community Center due to water damage

It may just be the final act for much of the Silverdale Community Center.

That’s the word this week from the Kitsap County Parks and Recreation officials. The county, which owns the building, has announced that heavy rain has damaged the building’s roof beyond repair.

“It’s very old building,” said Jim Dunwiddle, director for Kitsap County parks department. “It’s been patched over and over. It’s a situation where a little leak turns into a big leak, turns into a hole.”

Dunwiddle said a recent inspection by the county showed that the roof over the long portion of the building had severe damage and the county made the decision to close that portion of the building at the end of the month.

Areas impacted by the closure include the northwest portion of the building which houses storage areas, the Central Kitsap Community Council office, the Kitsap County Long-Term and Aging office, as well as the Poplar and Cedar meeting spaces.

The Central State Theater of County Kitsap (CSTOCK) performance area in the A-frame portion of the building, and Evergreen meeting room below that will continue to remain open, pending an assessment separating mechanical systems.

CSTOCK’s production of “A Christmas Carol” will continue its run in the community center, with performances scheduled through Dec. 21.

The building was built in 1958 and became a county parks facility in the mid 1990s. It had previously been a church, Dunwiddle said. The building now needs at least $700,000 in repairs, including a new roof, structural, mechanical and electrical improvements, he said.

“The county is not able to afford that kind of work,” he said. “It was a difficult decision to make. It’s just very unfortunate.”

While CSTOCK, a community theater group which has been around for 28 years, can complete its current stage production, its future, beyond December, is unknown.

“We haven’t been given an exact timeline,” said Brandon Myers, board president for CSTOCK. “The county called us last week and told us that it had decided to close a portion of the building, but that the performance theater was OK. I know they’re looking at letting us stay through the first part of 2015. But eventually, we will have to find a new home.”

Dunwiddle said that further inspections will determine whether CSTOCK can remain in the building through April of 2015.

In the meantime, the parks department is working to find locations for the tenants who are displaced, including storage rooms for CSTOCK, an office for the county’s aging division, and an office that can be used by the Central Kitsap Community Council for board meetings.

“The council also needs some storage space for their records,” Dunwiddle said. “And we’re committed to finding other meeting rooms for the groups that use the Poplar and Cedar meeting spaces.”

The Evergreen Room, the larger meeting room in the building, will remain open through December and possibly through April, he said.

While closing portions of the community center creates an inconvenience for users and tenants, maintaining public safety is paramount, Dunwiddle said. There was substantial damage to multiple areas directly impacting public access and use of the building. The department is working with the county fire marshal on what emergency fire exits need to be maintained, he said.

Myers said CSTOCK is looking at all its options.

“In the beginning, we were a ‘road show,'” he said. “We’d travel from one auditorium to another in the CK School District to perform. We even performed at the (Kitsap) mall. That’s something that we may have to do again, until we find a more permanent home.”

The CSTOCK board has talked with the county and a group known as West Sound Performing Arts Center (WSPAC) about being part of plans for a new performing arts theater to be build in central Kitsap. One plan is to build a performance theater on the Central Kitsap Community Campus, which is where the current theater is.

“CSTOCK has some concerns because what they’re (WSPAC) looking at is a state-of-the-art facility, a 600- to 900-seat theater,” he said. “How are you going to pay for it? How are you going to keep the doors open? We’ve been around the block before. We know the costs to run something like that and we’re not sure that feasible.”

CSTOCK’s need is for a theater that seats 200 and is something that is accessible to them every day of the year, he said.

“A lot of what we do is our educational programs,” he said. “We need a place where we can work 365 days of the year. That’s what we’re looking for.”