Silvana’s Viking Hall needs more than $80,000 for repairs.

SILVANA — Viking Hall’s furnace is on the fritz and its septic system is pooped out.

To keep the aging community hall open, fundraising-campaign organizers estimate it’s going to cost about $80,000. And that doesn’t include repairs to the roof, the ceiling, the lighting and electrical wiring.

The hall has been the hub of the Silvana community for many decades.

The nonprofit Silvana Community Association, which runs the 3,760-square-foot hall, plays host annually to such events as the Silvana Fair.

The fair auction, 4-H youth activities, a vintage car show, the county Dairy Ambassador coronation, bingo games, fundraisers for the fire department, Ducks Unlimited dinners and Halloween parties all happen at Viking Hall, as do exercise classes, weddings, receptions and reunions.

The annual harvest dinner at the hall celebrates the dairy and farming community in north Snohomish County.

Community association members and Silvana business owners Kathie Pedersen and Dick Metz grew up in Marysville and remember the big dances held at Viking Hall in the 1950s and ‘60s.

So does Snohomish County Councilman John Koster.

“Viking Hall has a lot of history, and I remember many events there,” Koster said. “I wasn’t aware of all the of issues with the building, but Viking Hall is very important to Silvana and the surrounding area and it needs to be saved.”

The hall sits on the site of the former Hotel Silvana, which operated in the early 1900s when Silvana had a school, three general stores, three saloons, a second hotel, two candy stores, two churches, a livery, a bank, a train depot and a shingle mill. The community’s Lutheran church survives.

The Sons of Norway took over the hotel in 1925 and built the current concrete block building, complete with its rosemaling trim, in the 1950s. Though Sons of Norway memorabilia still hangs on the wall near the hall’s industrial kitchen, the fraternal organization deeded the building to the Silvana Community Association in 1996.

That’s when maintenance on the building began to slip, Metz said. The septic drain fields were probably built in the 1950s, he guesses.

Slow drainage from restrooms and the hall’s kitchen has been an ongoing problem that’s getting progressively worse, Metz said. To make matters worse, the paved parking lot, which is on a county right-of-way, is going to have to be torn up in order to make some of the repairs, he said.

Three sewage vaults and three drain fields will be consolidated into one filtration system vault and new drain field behind the hall at a cost of about $50,000, Metz said. Unfortunately, the community association is now down to just a handful of active members.

“We’re not trying to take over,” said Metz, who serves as vice president of the group. “We’re just trying to get people to pull together and take care of the needs.”

Metz and his wife Patti, who own the mercantile next door to the hall, have already spent a lot of time working with the county public works and planning departments and the county health district to prepare for the septic repairs. In the meantime, an extra portable toilet sits near the back door of the hall.

Like the Metzes, Pedersen, who owns a spa and hair salon a few doors down, wanted the hall to keep going and decided to join the community association.

“Viking Hall is used by a lot of people, but many take it for granted,” Pedersen said. “I think people just think that it’s just always going to be here.”

Pedersen and Patti Metz hope to get at least 250 people out for the Harvest Dinner on Sunday and raise at least $5,000 for the septic system repair.

The event features a turkey and ham dinner buffet and musical entertainment by Stanwood country singer Hannah Michelle Weeks, who earlier this fall released her debut album.

They also hope to attract more members to the Silvana Community Association.

“We have hope that Viking Hall will survive,” Patti Metz said. “Because of all the permits and regulations we have to get and follow, we can just depend on volunteer work. We need our community to donate to this cause.”

More fundraisers will follow, she said.

Gale Fiege: 425-339-3427; gfiege@heraldnet.com.

Benefit dinner

A Harvest dinner to support Silvana’s Viking Hall is set for 5 p.m. Sunday at the hall, 1331 Pioneer Highway. Live entertainment and door prizes planned. For more information, call 360-652-9081.