Ideas that are new, big, bold and beneficial are a little hard to come by these days, but a broad coalition of Lewis County community leaders have just offered us an idea that is innovative and exciting, indeed.
It’s called the United Learning Center.
The proposal calls for a state-of-the-art learning center for young children, a children’s museum, a community kitchen and a recreation center in the heart of downtown Centralia.
It “provides seamless learning experiences for children of all ages, ignites cultural and economic development in historic downtown and helps end intergenerational poverty among the people in our community that need it most,” supporters said in a letter to the Centralia City Council.
The United Learning Center or ULC, would be built in a city-owned vacant lot at Pearl and Maple streets in Centralia, across the street from The Chronicle and diagonal to City Hall.
The ULC would give a home for the Boys and Girls Club of Lewis County to begin providing in Centralia the kind of after-school, summer programs and support services that have become a vital and much-appreciated part of life for parents and children in Chehalis.
The facility would also house an early-learning center, providing daycare that is desperately needed for working parents, for children ages 18 months to 5 years old. In Lewis County, only a quarter of children under age 5 can participate in a quality childcare program. Barely half of children in Lewis County enter kindergarten ready to learn. Quality early-learning opportunities like the United Learning Center could change that — and thus, change our community for the better.
The ULC could also house the Discover! Children’s Museum. That’s the idea of a dedicated group that brought it briefly to life in a temporary “pop-up” test museum back in 2013. That children’s museum was a huge success, and the group has continued to work toward raising funds for a permanent facility.
There are several options proposed for the ULC, ranging from a $4.3 million proposal for the early learning center, gym and artificial turf soccer field, up to the full proposal that includes the Boys and Girls Club and the children’s museum, for a total cost of $9.8 million.
The biggest question on the project, of course, is how to pay for construction.
Fortunately, the groups are coming to the city with money in hand. The early-learning partners have already raised $3 million, and the Discover! Children’s Museum has raised $1 million, along with nearly as much money again in pledges from generous donors.
The city of Centralia is being asked to invest up to $1.9 million in real-estate excise tax reserve funds. This would not affect the city’s general fund.
The other partners are committed to continuing to fund-raise to pay for the project.
These individual projects are all very worthy on their own. Centralia, and all of America, is in dire need of child-care options. The Boys & Girls Club is a tremendous value for our community. And the Discover! Children’s Museum is a wonderful project that will provide an exciting learning opportunity for every child in the area — and will draw an estimated 15,000 visitors annually from many miles away.
However, none of these individual projects can finance the construction of their own building on their own. Collaboration is a common-sense solution.
Consolidating these similar projects into one building in the county’s largest city makes great sense.
The collaboration between nonprofits and the city is powered by many thoughtful, experienced and reliable community board members. They know what they’re doing and how to make things happen.
This project would be, said supporter Todd Chaput of United Way of Lewis County, “a safe educational space from toddler to high school graduate.”
This investment of public funds deserves public consideration and scrutiny, of course. The Centralia City Council will be considering the idea at their next meeting on Aug. 11. The 7 p.m. meeting can be accessed virtually at this public call in number: 1-408-418-9388, with access code: 146 511 4729.
I’d encourage members of the public to get involved. This is an exciting idea that could improve the lives of our community children for generations to come while helping add a dynamic new fixture to our downtown.
I encourage you to learn about the project, ask questions of its advocates and council members, and become a positive force for change. We’re in a difficult time in this nation. The cost of this proposal deserves scrutiny. But so does its potential for transforming the lives of struggling children and families.
If we all add our ideas, energy and involvement, the United Learning Center has the potential to be something that we can all be proud of for decades to come.
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Brian Mittge had a blast at the Discovery! Children’s Museum when it popped up in 2013, and he’s hopeful of seeing it return. For his kids, of course. Ahem. Contact him at brianmittge@hotmail.com
