New Kingston Community Center plan to be unveiled

Published 6:00 pm Saturday, September 23, 2006

KINGSTON — As the Little City by the Sea becomes larger, several organizations are helping shape the growth. Among them is the Kingston Community Center Foundation, which has a long history in the community.

The group is now striving to build a new center for Kingston in conjunction with the Village Green project and plans to unveil rough concepts for the building at its Sept. 25 meeting said KCCF President Bobbie Moore.

“We’re going to have very rough concept drawings,” Moore said. “This is the second of two meetings, the first was last Tuesday during the day. We wanted to make sure the entire public had a chance to see what we’re planning, so we’re having another evening meeting.”

The drawings, which are being done by the Miles Yanick Company, will be extremely rough, said principal architect Miles Yanick.

“These drawings will be strictly diagramatical,” he said, adding that they are nowhere near final, but will give the public a general idea of what the community center could look like.

The KCCF has requested the center have several key features, including a library, space for the North Kitsap Boys & Girls Club, a kitchen, an office for the Kingston Chamber of Commerce, a general meeting space and a senior activity center, Yanick said.

“We, at the library, really hope that the center will have room for the Boys & Girls Club and a senior center, because that would provide us with an audience,” said Kingston Library branch manager and KCCF board member Susan Thorsteinson, adding that so far the plan is extremely long-range, and the KCCF isn’t sure what elements will finally be housed in the building.

A senior activity center could coincide with senior housing that might be attached to the KCC, Moore said.

“We had 35 people at the last meeting,” she said. “We asked people at that time how many would like to have senior housing attached to the community center. Not too many were opposed. In fact, there was an overwhelming majority in favor of senior housing.”

This would be a huge upgrade from the current community center, Moore said, adding that there would be more room for different groups that want to host programs in the building.

In previous years, the KCCF ran the Kingston Community Center, booking its meeting rooms for various functions, before the county bought the building in the early 1990s, she said.

“We funded operations by means of operating the Kingston Community News, which the board owned at that point, and with vending machines and other fund raisers as well,” Moore said, adding that when the county took over the community center, the KCCF evolved into planning for a future community center.

“We’ve had a wonderful time working together,” Yanick said, adding that the project has been fun because it has so many elements.

“There are some very exciting possibilities available to us,” Moore added.

“I don’t think many people know about it yet,” Thorsteinson said. “But I think as soon as we have a 3-D model or a poster up, that will galvanize people, and they’ll become much more interested.”