In a show of unity and community support, three local Rotary Clubs (Edmonds Rotary, Edmonds Daybreakers Rotary and the Alderwood Terrace Rotary Club) have collectively committed $130,000 toward the Waterfront Center campaign.
“Our club sees this as an important investment in our community,” said Kevin McCandlish, president for the Alderwood Terrace Club.
The joint gift will be recognized with naming The Rotary Room for the second-floor meeting room featuring a deck, teaching kitchen and view of the Puget Sound. “We are thrilled to get all the clubs to join forces on this important community project” said David Kaufer, club president for Edmonds Rotary.
“We look forward, along with the entire greater Edmonds community, to having this wonderful new center for meetings, functions and events,” added John West, president of the Edmonds Daybreakers Club. “As the Daybreakers continue to grow, having this option available for larger gatherings with such an awesome setting, will be a real plus to all.”
Other recent gifts to the Waterfront Center campaign include $200,000 from the Hazel Miller Foundation (added to their original $300,000 pledge) $100,000 from a local family foundation, and countless individual gifts, bringing the total raised to date of $12.48M million toward the $16 million goal. “It has been inspiring to see this groundswell of support, said Gary Haakenson, fundraising campaign co-chair. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
The senior center, through its capital campaign, has been fundraising in earnest for the past year, since learning that the center’s construction target of $10 million skyrocketed to $16 million due to the region’s extremely hot construction market.
The plan is to to build a new 26,000-square-foot sustainable building that offers a range of programs emphasizing health and wellness, recreation and education for people of all ages while still responding to the unique needs of an aging population living in South Snohomish and North King County. The plan includes beach restoration in conjunction with the city and improved access to this rare waterfront site. If permitting and fundraising goes as planned, construction is likely to start in late spring 2019.
To learn more about ways you can participate, contact Campaign Director Daniel Johnson, danielrjohnson4@gmail.com.
So the cost of the center rebuild has gone from $10M to $16M?? Due to “the region’s hot construction market”. What does that mean? What kind of an explanation is that? A 60% increase in the bid to do the work! And no explanation other than some vague excuse about demand. What is inflation, 2%? And the cost goes up 60%? We are left to speculate. The first impression is that the contractor is gouging this not-for-profit Waterfront Center project being built for the community. Who is in charge down there who has accepted this and then begs for more money from our community. $6M more from an original bid of $10M and you all just accept that?! This needs to be investigated my an outside entity to determine how this is happening. This is outrageous. Do not donate another dime until a detailed explanation is provided!
It is hard to understand even in this market how cost estimates could escalate this much. How many bids were involved or was this a single sourced project?