Young at Heart

On Saturday, August 11, the Blaine Senior Center will celebrate its 51st anniversary, so over the next four months, Young at Heart will share the story of how it began. This piece is part three of a five-part series written by the late Evelyn Yarbrough for the Blaine Senior Center:

Early in the process, we became divided on architectural design. One of the sticking points in the design was the requirements that the builder would have the option of either incorporating the old building into the new or tearing it down.

Maybe this salved the conscience of people who did not want to tear down a nice little building but it wasn’t really a practical plan because the unusual roof line would have been impossible to join and the only walls usable would be the portion of two sides of this ruling made it necessary to consider every bearing wall in the building as a part of the

final design.

A fire wall would be needed between the two areas of the building so that the noise from one area could not be heard in the other. Portable partitions would be needed to make class and meeting rooms available and still open up into the one large room when needed.

After much planning and thought, a final plan was approved. We began working with a new architect during the last stages of design and the time that had elapsed from our original cost estimates caused a real problem when we were ready to ask for bids.

The cost of building materials had risen very sharply, and there was no way we were going to be able to get a bid low enough to cover the cost by the money available.

First, we needed to go through everything and eliminate everything that could be done later if the shell of the original was finished. We would rely on volunteer help and subsequent fund raisers to finish the project. We took off the receptions desk, bookshelves, interior paint, wall finishes, storeroom floor cover, conversation area finish and a number of smaller things to reduce the original cost.

The lowest bid we received was for $1.05 million so we had to hit the streets again, trying every possible source. We received $60,000 from Whatcom County Parks and Recreation and $40,000 from the Boys & Girls Clubs of Whatcom County. The rest was raised from donations by corporations and individuals. The senior membership gave generously. We even had a $25 donation from a homeless man who often came to our center. After we met the amount for the bids, we had to raise a 6 percent contingency fund for the cost over rides. We kept this in a separate account until the bills were settled.

This article was edited for clarity purposes.