Meeting scheduled for auditorium planning committee

WALLACE — After some positive feedback at its most recent meeting, the Wallace School District is moving forward with future meetings to look into developing a plan for the Civic Auditorium.

The Wallace School District Auditorium Committee has been meeting for several months and recently got back the results of a survey, where the general consensus was that people were in favor of saving the building and either restoring it or remodeling it.

That committee has existed on an invite-only basis, where the point was to determine if there was still community interest in the building, as well as to assess its current value to the district.

As with any project of that magnitude, a healthy amount of manpower and money is required.

Wallace School District Superintendent Todd Howard recently spoke with the Shoshone News-Press to discuss how these future meetings will shape the future of the historic gymnasium.

The first step will be developing a new committee that operates independently from the WSD but stays connected to them as they develop their plan.

“We are transitioning into a committee to develop an idea,” Howard said. “Primarily composed of people who have an interest in a project that will resurrect that property. There are all of these things that could be, but we don’t have finalized, approved, ‘this is what we’re doing’ — that’s what the point of this new committee is.”

That committee will have different groups who look into things like basic financials and money, the potential development of a recreational district, as well as the project itself.

Howard knows that the potential for funding is out there, but is very blunt about it taking community participation.

“We’re finding some potential avenues that could get us somewhere, but we’ve got to find people in the area that are willing to put forth the effort to do something with the facility and property.”

Howard has had some experts walk the grounds of the Civic Auditorium — and in its current state, just to be remodeled and brought up to code is estimated around $5.4 million.

Even if nothing comes of the efforts, the WSD will have to make a decision of some sort on the building in the coming months due to the building’s failed heating system.

Without heat, the deterioration process is only going to be expedited — if saving and remodeling the building is not in the cards, there will be costs associated with tearing it down and disposing of the materials, much of it requiring special disposal due to what it's made of.

Currently, the Civic Auditorium sits relatively empty, with the exception of some storage.

“This is just the first step in the next chapter and it will require a significant amount of effort and involvement to get it all done,” Howard said. “If we can’t draw enough interest, then we will have to abandon the idea of a project.”

Howard would like to invite anyone who is interested to a meeting at 5:30 p.m. Feb. 23 at the fire hall in Osburn.