City council members have approved in principle the idea of transferring ownership of the Plainwell Community Center to the school district.
Council members voted Monday, June 27, to allow city staff to negotiate the transfer of the building.
Community center board member Tony Gless said, “The Plainwell school district has made an offer to you to purchase the Plainwell Community Center.”
Gless said when the volunteer board had started the effort in 1996-97, three priorities were figuring out how to meet operating expenses, how to fund renovations and how to secure the future of the center.
“Our mission is not to do programming,” Gless said. ‘It never was. We provide a meeting space for the community, then people would rent the building to provide the programming.”
Local philanthropists, foundations like the Anna R. Pipp Foundation and Allegan County Community Foundation and others have been generous in helping the center renovate.
“Many financial contributions including, like PBS says, contributions from people like you,” Gless said.
However, the future is what still worried the board, he said.
“Our concern is sustaining the operation of the building,” Gless said. “We looked at two successful programs, Portage and Comstock. They’re both very successful and they pay their employees. Portage receives about $300,000 per year from the general fund and Comstock has a small millage.”
Gless said conversations with the school had started because Plainwell’s alternative education, currently housed in the industrial park, had rented the center for some events.
“They’d said they’d use the building more because they’re busting at the seams,” he said. “Our board thought that if we could partner with something as good as that, it would help support the operations.”
Center board members started discussing the matter with Superintendent Susan Wakefield and city manager Erik Wilson.
“What came out of it is that both sides came up with a win-win situation for all parties,” Gless said.
Wilson said he’d supported the center board’s idea.
“We want to be sure the community can use the building the same as they always have,” he said.
Wakefield said, “We see no reason these programs couldn’t still go on.
“We certainly want to see the money they’re paying to rent the center continue.”
She said Tammy Glupker, who started the original conversations, oversees both the alternative education and community education programs.
Wakefield said, “We often have problems in community ed of not having enough space.”
Wilson said the city and school had agreed on $75,000 to cover the amount the city spent on the center since 1996.
Council member Lori Snyder moved to give Wilson the authority to negotiate the transfer, with a second from council member Brad Keeler. The motion passed unanimously.
Mayor Rick Brooks said, “It sounds great to me.”
Snyder did mention she was worried about seeing alternative education students smoking just off of school property.
“That just bugs me,” she said.
Wilson said he’d spoken to the nearby businesses about the transfer, and Preferred Plastics had a concern about parking, but other than that there weren’t worries about increased use.
After the meeting, he said the city would write something into the agreement to try to guarantee the current uses could continue.
Gless said, “We’d just thank the community for everything they’ve done for the center over the years.”
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