Council Approves Hiring of Architect to Design Multipurpose Room

The Scotts Valley City Council gave the go-ahead to architectural firm Group4 to come up with a conceptual design plan for a multi-purpose room in the empty space next to the library. Help from the community will be necessary though, the council said, for it to actually become a reality.

Group4 is the same firm the city worked with on designing the library. The conceptual plan would be the first step in the process and would assist city staff in seeking out grants and/or private funding sources to help get the project off the ground.

Councilman Jim Reed said that the city does not have the money to do anything besides have a conceptual plan drawn up at the moment and that for the project to move forward, “significant contribution from the private sector” will be needed.

“The problem is that the governor got rid of RDAs in the last year, so that revenue stream that made that library possible, that made the community center possible, and the purchase of that building in the first place possible is gone and it’s not coming back,” Reed said. “The importance of private fundraising is enormous to what goes there.”

The property in question is a part of the library building. The 22,230-square-foot property was purchased in 2009 and was a part of a long-range plan with the first phase being the 13,150-square-foot library, which opened in June 2011. The second phase of the project has always been the remodeling of the remaining 9,080-square-foot adjoining property as funds became available.

Ideally, the council is looking into having a multi-purpose room built that could be used for a variety of purposes, such as basketball, volleyball, aerobics, gymnastics, performing arts, and special events.

The local theater community says they would really like a space that could be used for performances since there is virtually no place in town that can be used since Bethany University was recently put up for sale and the use of its theater is no longer an option.

Dawn Teall, president of Scott Valley Artisans, said that the group is hoping to put together an exploratory committee to open a performing arts center in the space.

“We feel like we are well placed to play an organizational and also a fundraising role to make our performing arts center a reality,” Teall said.

Trish Melehan, a Scotts Valley arts commissioner and board member of Scotts Valley Performing Arts Association, said that since Bethany’s closure, SVPAA is without a place to perform. Recently, the organization had to cancel its fall performance of “Annie,” which was set to be performed at the Bethany theater. The organization, along with several other organizations in town, has used the theater at the college campus for its performances for many years.

“The community needs to take a really hard look at what we need here because literally thousands of people used Bethany throughout the years,” Melehan said. “With it gone, we really don’t have anything here to have a real theater. If we had a real theater, the city would be supported by the number of people that would use it.”

Councilman Dene Bustichi said that he feels it’s important to hold a town hall meeting to gather community input on what people would most like to see go into the space, so that the architect can have all of that information before beginning.

“I thing it’s really important to get that information from the community,” Bustichi said. “We did that with the town center and it was very successful. While we can’t be all things to all people, we do want to get as much input as we can.”