Like a sunken vessel resting on the muddy floor of Liberty Bay, the former Marine Science Center has been awaiting salvage for the past year or so. It’s well on its way now.

Making good on their election promises, state Rep. Sherry Appleton and Mayor Kathryn Quade helped provide the womanpower to raise the MSC to the surface. Getting $250,000 from the state for this cause is a notable accomplishment and both should be commended.

But with any success comes new challenges. The Marine Science Center may be up but it’s far from running.

Money is a big part of the problem but it’s not the only part. Financial burdens, after all, weren’t the only thing that sent the center into the depths in the first place. The MSC needs continued support from the community to sustain itself.

The North Kitsap School District was one of the lifeboats for the center and while officials there are excited about its restart, the district could face problems trying to fit instruction there into its new six-class format. If the center is to succeed, the NKSD must figure out how it can back school-based programs there.

Longtime supporters of the MSC have hopefully learned a valuable lesson — positive things don’t always continue. The closure of the center was evidence of this. Nobody wanted to see it fail. But it did.

Hopefully, the swell of interest in the new MSC won’t die down anytime soon, or ever, and the center will keep its bow above water and cut a new route through the surf of success.