FILE PHOTO — Restoration work continues inside the Fox Theatre in downtown Centralia.
Ongoing efforts to renovate the Fox Theatre in downtown Centralia received a shot in the arm Monday.
A draft of the 2019-2021 capital budget published Monday by the state House Capital Budget Committee includes more than $1.2 million in funding specifically for the renovation, which is scheduled to be completed by the fall of 2020.
Scott White, president of the Historic Fox Theatre Restorations nonprofit spearheading the project, said the $1 million requested for the first time as part of the new budget cycle represents the final time he plans to ask the state for financial assistance. The remaining $209,000 is a re-appropriation from the current capital budget, which is set to expire on June 31.
Both pots of money would be earmarked for capital improvements to the building, which was built in 1930.
“I think of those as anything within the building that’s meant to be permanent,” White said. “Things like seating and carpeting, those don’t qualify. Everything we’re doing to finish the exterior of the building, the panting we’re going to do to recreate the original art on the ceiling. … All that restoration as part of the improvements as well as expanding the bathrooms on the lower levels and adding some other elements to make it more accessible, those would be some of the things we’d call capital improvements.”
Assuming the proposed state funding remains intact as the capital budget makes its way through the state legislature and eventually to the desk of Gov. Jay Inslee, White estimates the nonprofit will need to raise about $1.5 million between now and the end of 2020 to fully fund the restoration and keep it on schedule.
When White went to the Centralia City Council last year to ask for a cash infusion, he told them he would be asking the state for additional funding and that the city’s money would be used to keep the project moving until that time. The city pitched in $1 million, which it intends to pay back via lodging tax funds and a bond issue.
“This money from the state is crucial to getting the theater done on time and it’s also what we told the city we were hoping to get (from the state),” White said. “This will be the money that gets us to the finish line.”
A number of additional projects in Centralia and Chehalis are in line to receive state funding as part of the draft capital budget. The largest dollar amount after the Fox Theatre belongs to Centralia, which could get more than $490,000 for restoration and safety upgrades at the Greenwood Memorial Park in Centralia.
It’s unlikely the city would receive or use that much money as part of its efforts to fix up and stabilize the cemetery, which has fallen into disrepair, because it does not want to purchase the land and assume responsibility for numerous paperwork snafus associated with the property.
DeBolt said the money is there in part so that if Centralia decides it wants to take over Greenwood and form a cemetery district to manage it and other local burial sites, that option is feasible.
Chehalis would be the recipient of $258,000 for upgrades to Recreation Park, including the construction of a new Penny Playground and the installation of artificial playing surfaces on ball fields.
City officials were optimistic they would receive those funds last month when it updated the city council on the renovation effort. It hopes to break ground on the new playground this summer.
Rounding out the Chehalis appropriations is $62,000 for the Southwest Washington Dance Center.
The state Senate is expected to release its version of a capital budget next week, with negotiations between the two legislative bodies set to commence soon after.
