SNOHOMISH — The Carnegie Building needs to brace itself for disaster.
The 100-year-old structure is in line to receive $830,000 in work this fall from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to reinforce it against earthquakes.
The seismic retrofitting would strengthen support beams and reinforce the roof. The building itself acts as the city’s command center during floods and other disasters.
The grant also might jump-start a multimillion-dollar effort to transform the building into a community center. Members of the Snohomish Carnegie Foundation hope the FEMA grant will open doors to other grants, making a full rehabilitation possible in the coming years.
“We’re absolutely excited about it, and we are absolutely moving forward in the manner that we had hoped,” said City Councilwoman Melody Clemans, who is president of the foundation.
The Carnegie Building, which opened in 1910 as a library and is owned by the city owns, has fallen into disrepair over the years. Dark gray carpet is peeling in places. The high, cream-colored walls are scuffed and streaked with white paint. Long fluorescent bulbs buzz steadily overhead.
Efforts to restore the building to its past glory began in earnest in 2005, two years after the library vacated the building. The foundation, a nonprofit group appointed by the city, set about transforming the space.
Their effort is needed since the building hasn’t received any significant upgrades in decades.
“It’s a very old building and depending on the depth and type of quake that occurs, it could be catastrophic,” City Manager Larry Bauman said.
The foundation also wants to turn the building into a community center, something city government now lacks. City Hall is devoted to offices, while other buildings — the new library, the senior center — aren’t operated by the city.
“Even our City Council doesn’t have a meeting space,” Bauman said. “We use the school district’s meeting space. We do need a place.”
The foundation spent $27,000 on a study of the building. The city lent its manpower to the grant process, but has not spent capital dollars on the project, Bauman said.
The application was approved by the state, which local leaders called their biggest hurdle. Now, it advances to the federal level, where it could be approved in full, approved in part or rejected outright.
Bauman and Clemans said complete rejection is unlikely, since the project has the state’s support. Instead, they are optimistic the building will get at least a good chunk of the requested money.
“We’ve gotten very good feedback,” Bauman said.
Andy Rathbun: 425-339-3455; arathbun@heraldnet.com.
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