Newberg Graphic Online

For lack of heat, center will open late

Culture — Grand opening now planned for March 27 for Chehalem Cultural Center after delay in getting parts for the building’s boiler

• By: Laurent Bonczijk  
• Published: 1/22/2010 2:26:33 PM

Classroom space —
Classes are scheduled to begin on the Monday after the March 29 opening of the Chehalem Cultural Center on Sheridan Street.

   The opening of the Chehalem Cultural Center will be delayed until the early spring, organizers recently announced.
   Initially slated to open in mid-January, the facility will have its grand opening March 27, but executives expect a soft opening before that.
   Jim McMaster, Chehalem Park and Recreation District parks and facilities supervisor, said the delay was due to boiler parts that have yet to arrive. And until the parts are installed and the boilers up and running, he can’t ask the city to inspect it and approve it for public use.
   Mary Sommerset, who has been writing grants to make construction of the center possible, said a grand opening is planned for March 27, but that she expects a soft opening to take place in the next few weeks as she and the employees who will run the cultural center move their offices into the building. Classes are scheduled to start the Monday following the opening, March 29, she said.
   McMaster said it wasn’t unusual for construction projects to take longer than expected, especially when remodeling an existing building, where challenges can pop up as construction gets underway.
   When open, the cultural center will offer a variety of classes and will host Portland Community College classes while the school undertakes to build its own facility at the corner of Brutscher Street and Fernwood Road.
   Current construction is wrapping up the next phase of the Chehalem Cultural Center and will include gallery space, glass and ceramic studios, classrooms, a recording studio and offices.
   Robin Anderson was hired in November to oversee programs at the school as executive director. As future areas of the former Central School are renovated, Anderson said she looks forward to adding drama and dance lessons and recitals.
   “It’s one of the few places I’ve worked that has all these elements in a single space,” she said during a November interview. “We’re still fund-raising and I hope that opening the first wing will encourage more people to get involved. Once the entire center is open, it will be a destination spot for visitors to the region.
   The cultural center is being built within the confines of the former Central School, closed in June 1995 and its students shipped off to Newberg’s newest elementary school, Crater.
   The park district took over ownership of the building from the school district a few years later and was twice unsuccessful in passing bond measures that would have allowed immediate remodeling of the aging building.
  From 1997 the CPRD received some state and federal grants that allowed it to begin the refurbishing effort, including performing required seismic upgrades to the building. The grants also allowed for constructing returning the front entrance of the building. Much of the demolition work undertaken during the initial stages of reconstruction was done by inmates from the Yamhill County jail.

  (log in to rate)