POULSBO — With less than four months until the next Legislative session begins, efforts to open the Marine Science Center have taken the city’s center stage.

Mayor Kathryn Quade added the item to Wednesday’s city council agenda at the last minute and reminded the council that an agreement between city and the Poulsbo Marine Science Center Foundation needs to be reached soon.

The agreement is pertinent in that it will allow the foundation to begin using the $250,000 appropriation the city received to reopen the center during the 2006 Legislative session.

PMSCF president Admiral Bruce Harlow (Ret.) told the council that the foundation needs to be able to show the Legislature progress before its next session begins in January 2007.

“Time is of the essence, and we need to show them what we’ve done with the $250,000,” Harlow said.

The program for the Marine Science Center will be modeled after the educational program at the Naval Undersea Museum at Keyport, which has been successful in its first five years, he said.

That program has received federal funding to pay for a large part of its $750,000 annual operation expenses, he said.

“We can’t have a business plan, because education is expensive,” Harlow said. “There is no way we can bring in income that will match our expenses. I think the education of our youth is priceless.”

Councilman Ed Stern said the foundation has been asked for a concept plan and not a business plan as it did with the now-defunct Marine Science Society of the Northwest.

“They had a plan that always proposed to balance expenditures and revenue,” Stern said.

However, the foundation has a concept to develop an educational program with several area school districts, which is different from the program operated by the MSSNW, Stern said.

Councilwoman Connie Lord said she would like to see the words “business plan” removed from the discussion about the center, since they no longer apply.

“I had hoped to bring it to the finance committee Sept. 6 and bring it to council that night,” Quade told the council.

However, Councilman Mike Regis, who chairs the council’s public works committee, said that group needed to weigh in on the proposal because it could impact public works more than any other city department.

“There are some maintenance issues that need to be addressed that could have significant impacts,” Regis said.

Currently, the city is paying the bonds for the building and maintaining its exterior, but depending on how the maintenance for the building is addressed, the city could be looking at a substantial cost increase, Regis said.

Lord said the maintenance issue needs to be clarified before an actual agreement can be reached.

“I would foresee us taking care of the outside maintenance, and the interior would be the responsibility of the user,” Lord said.

Councilman Dale Rudolph joined the discussion, saying the city had recently replaced the building’s roof with the “rent” collected from the building’s previous tenants.

“It’s going to be far from free, but if everybody chips in their part, we can do it,” Rudolph said.

Regis and Stern agreed to begin the Aug. 23 public works committee meeting at 4 p.m. with the Marine Science Center discussion beginning at 6 p.m. in the planning department conference room.