By BOBBIE MOORE

Village green foundation

With the help of volunteers, the Village Green Foundation has collected enough signatures to place a metropolitan park district measure on the ballot.

The foundation’s goal was to collect signatures from 20 percent of the population in the proposed district, about 1,150 signatures.

We reached that threshold during the second week in February. At this writing it looks as though we’ll be turning about 1,230 signatures, in mid-February.

A giant thank you goes to community members from the Village Green Foundation Board and supporters, who were out in all kinds of weather gathering signatures. It was gratifying work, because everywhere we went nine people out of 10 were willing to sign. On behalf of the signature-gatherers, thanks for your support. It was inspiring to talk to so many people who believe in this project.

Thanks also to American Marine/Columbia Bank staff; Cuppa Bella; Henery Hardware; Cup & Muffin; Sacks; the Chamber of Commerce; the Coffee Exchange; the Oak Table Café; and Kingston Fitness for keeping a petition on site. To Kingston Lumber we owe a debt of gratitude for use of their readerboard and for the service they provided in updating the one at the Community Center.

Let’s revisit some petition campaign basics.

We can get a Metropolitan Park District measure on the ballot by:

Getting our Board of County Commissioners to vote for the ballot measure, or getting 15 percent of registered voters within the proposed district boundaries to sign a petition for the ballot measure. We are using a petition to ensure the community center is what our community wants. We have been advised to collect more than 15 percent to be on the safe side.

What about the capital (construction) funds?

We’ve submitted a capital request to the state, and are asking for federal funds as well. The preliminary architectural drawings are done, and we had a successful “pre-application” meeting with county permitting departments. The next steps are engineering work and site preparation. We’ll be going to nonprofit foundations next with funding requests.

Why isn’t there more detail about the library?

Our library system has stepped up to the plate and plans to put a levy on the ballot in November to pay for the library portion of the complex.

That’s a couple of million dollars less in capital (construction) funds that we have to raise. Construction of the library would be the responsibility of Kitsap Regional Library.

The regional library board and management is delighted that support for our park district petition campaign is strong; this support helps to make the case for a new Kingston library.

Find more information at www.kingstonvillagegreen.or e-mail Bobbie Moore at (360) 297-2845.elliottmoore@comcast.net.