As an initial step toward launching a capital campaign in February, the Village Green Foundation will host a volunteer brainstorming session with free spaghetti dinner at the Oak Table Café in Kingston, Nov. 6 from 4:30-6 p.m. The purpose is to gather volunteers who will contribute ideas and information about themselves and others they know who want to share their resources — time, talent, treasure — with the Village Green project. Oak Table owner Ross McCurdy will provide that really tasty spaghetti sauce you may have sampled, and you’ll have your choice of meat sauce or meatless sauce. Contact info@Kingstonvillagegreen.org for any more information.
Raising funds
Despite these challenging times, response to earlier requests and to a feasibility study done last fall (under the auspices of Boys & Girls Clubs of Snohomish County) has been very positive; we need to raise $1 million to $2 million by this time next year to begin drawing down the $1.03 million state grant Village Green Foundation was awarded this year. Given successful fundraising and grant-writing, by late 2012 we should be completing the infrastructure and getting ready to break ground on the community center building.
Grants
Volunteer grant-writers are hard at work developing grant applications for the various pieces of the project. Now that plans are taking shape for the Village Green pea-patch garden and an older children’s playground — along with the picnic shelter you read about in last month’s Community News — the Village Green Foundation is partnering with Kitsap Regional Library Foundation executive director Peter Raffa to determine what grants are available only for libraries.
The capital grant climate continues to be challenging, but we are grateful to have skilled and experienced partners in KRL and the BGCSC on our side. If you’d like to assist with grant-writing, contact info@kingstonvillagegreen.org. People helping with grant-writing for this project have varying levels of experience; if you have any inclination or experience in the field, you’ll be welcome!
Other news
Progress on the ground: As part of the Administrative Conditional Use Permit process, a technical review of documents was held with the County DCD staff on Sept. 21. Some additional information was required and was subsequently submitted.
MPD budget: The Metropolitan Park District is submitting a budget to the county assessor’s office that will result in about 5 cents per $1,000 dollars of assessed valuation on our 2012 tax bills. We still expect the Village Green property to be transferred late this year or early 2012.
