OK... how about a yard of Coors and some light work?

Edgar sighting? is Edgar actually an elmer? just be glad he kept his pants on

Has anybody up there thougt about a local recreation district? If there is enough interest in the sournding area for a pool-community center or whatever you want to build, you can spread the cost out. Down here in Goldendale, the city used to own the pool. A few years back, they closed it becaus repairs to keep it open would cost too much.(It was leaking about 3000gal of water a day.) They said they didn't have the money to build a new pool, even with $200K that was left to the city by a little old lady that passed on about 10 years ago. There was a lot of support around town for a pool, so a group put a proposal up for a local rec district. It covers an area that would likely use the pool, pretty much the area covered By the Goldendale and Centerville school districts. It was voted in about 6 years ago, and seems to be working pretty good. The city gave the rec district the $200K and the rec district put up a bond for the rest needed for a new pool. I can't remember all the steps the pool supporters went through, but it seemed like it didn't take long to get it on the ballot.

Thanks for the thought, Klicknative. I am conspiring with others to draft a proposal for some sort of "community center," and knowing nothing about this sort of thing, it helps to see some examples of things that have worked elsewhere.

I am pretty sure that proposing sole ownership by the City of Elma would be an almost instant deal-breaker. I have been trying to think of ways to somehow turn this into a county (or at least East County) thing in the interest of spreading the burden of maintenance around a bit (and also ensuring enough visitors to generate a significant amount of revenue from admission fees). This seems along the lines of what you guys did in Goldendale, and it is encouraging to see that it has worked there.

Cheers.

How about seeing if the GH YMCA would build an east county facility?

andy the school talked to the ymca about doing that but the did not think it would pay for it self even if we help out.

VCP's have every thing ya need.Swimming / Fishing / Wind surfing / Speed walking,what more do ya need in Elmer town????.Good luck,
STRIKE ZONE

Don't forget people watching.... You can ususally spot a 300lb single mom with a stretched out tramp stamp wearing some cutoffs and a tied up white t-shirt over a black bra giving her 6 year old a good beating whilst trying her best to not spill her beer or drop her smoke.

FleaFlickr02,

Contact the Grays Harbor Chamber of Commerce concerning your efforts to draft a propsal for a community center.

Last week I watched a presentation by a grant writing group that helped with the funding for the project at Stewart Field in Aberdeen. They have some pretty innovative ideas when it comes to raising money for projects like this, in fact it's what they focus on.

LeRoy or Callie at the Chamber could give you the name of the group and who to contact there.

PM me if you would like more details.

SW

Thanks, SW. That looks like a great lead. Knowing very little about how to craft proposals and even less about where to start, I could definitely benefit from some experience-based advice.

Thanks again to everyone who has contributed to this thread. It's got a nice mix of comedy and gore (reality), plus a fair amount of forward thinking. Good stuff.