MUKILTEO — In a move they hope will help them save the Rosehill Community Center, members of the group Friends of the Community Center are trying to debunk myths they say have contributed to the city’s plan to raze the building.
The grass-roots group held a press conference on Monday announcing that the former schoolhouse is well worth saving, according to a local historian, a developer and an architect the city hired a decade ago to study renovating the building.
No one from the city attended the press conference, with city officials saying that short notice — an e-mail sent out over the weekend — didn’t give them enough time.
Critics called the press conference carefully timed electioneering, while those involved said they shared their information two weeks before the election — when four hotly contested City Council races will be decided — because that’s when the panel of speakers could be brought together.
Kathy Wisbeck, Friends of the Community Center president, said the information was also presented now so the group can position itself to fight to keep the community center when the city discusses what to do with the building later in the year.
In 1998, the City Council voted to raze the building. Various proposals have been circulated on what should be built at the site, with the city currently proposing to build a city hall and a new community center there.
Wisbeck said the press conference was held because there are a lot of myths in the community that have contributed to the perception that the near 75-year-old building needs to be destroyed. Included on the list is that the building has too much asbestos and lead paint to be worth saving, that parts of it aren’t earthquake safe, and that the building was built in a hurry with straw stuffed into the walls.
"A lot of these things have been repeated over and over again over the years," Wisbeck said, referring to council meetings, news stories and letters to the editor in regional publications.
Councilwoman Cathy Reese said many of the myths are things that she’s never heard before, or are simply not issues at all.
"No one that I’ve heard of said that asbestos or lead paint is a nonstarter," Reese said, adding that the city realizes that any such contaminants would have to be removed whether a new building is built or the old one is renovated.
"Having hay in the wall ? That’s pretty goofy," she added.
Reporter Lukas Velush: 425-339-3449 or lvelush@heraldnet.com.
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