What does the future hold…

WALLACE — What do you do with an aging building in distress in a town where every building is on the historic registry and the cost of repairs seemingly grows by the day?

These are the questions Wallace School District Superintendent Todd Howard and a small committee are asking themselves — and hoping that someone will step up to help them answer.

The Wallace Civic Auditorium is a magnificent structure — where, with just a brief peek inside, many people are transported back in time to an era when the gymnasium was ground zero for numerous events and games.

However, over the past decade, the building has fallen into severe disrepair, and now a decision needs to be made on its future.

A recent anonymous survey that was put out over social media yielded some vital information — it offered four distinctly different solutions to the issue of what to do with the building, but the results pointed toward one goal.

“The survey was for perception, really to gauge the interest of the community,” Howard said. “To see what people might be interested in. The vast majority, 95% of people who responded to our survey stated that they would be in favor of some type of project that is going to cost money. But where that money comes from… We have no clue.”

While the options on the survey weren’t set-in-stone plans — something Howard would like to stress — they did determine what the majority of the responders would like to see done with the building.

The option to remodel the current facility was the majority vote-getter, but only by a small 52% margin — so while 95% of those surveyed would like to see something done with the building besides tearing it down, 43% thought that a different option would be preferable.

What Howard and the committee did determine was that they believe their efforts are wanted by the community and that looking into saving the building is not being perceived as a waste of time.

Howard explained that the plan, for now, is to continue to determine the levels of support that are available throughout the community and to continue to bring people on board who would like to be a part of any project concerning the historic auditorium.

“We don’t want any parameters on who can be a part of this or where they need to be from,” Howard said. “If someone from Cataldo wanted to be part of a community project where they develop a plan to restore the facility and use it then that’s fine. I don’t think this is just a ‘Wallace project’ or a ‘Wallace School District project,’ we just want to find people who want to be involved.”

And, should a group outside from the Wallace School District — the owners of the building — be the ones who develop a plan and project for the property, there will be some very specific hurdles that need to be cleared.

“The district is going to have to decide what role we play in the process and where we sit with the facility and the property. According to Idaho Code, if that property changes hands, there are some very specific steps that must take place,” Howard said. “As a board, we have to determine if we want to be the sole owners or if we want something else.”

While nothing has been planned, 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 would fetch a price tag estimated around $5.4 million.

No matter what does get decided upon, the district will be required to make some decisions about the building’s short-term and long-term future very soon.

The building’s heating system has failed completely, which is only going to expedite any future deterioration — 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 is made of.

Currently, the Civic Auditorium sits relatively empty, with the exception of some storage — what many people do not know is that the auditorium itself and the east educational wing, the section of the building nearest the Wallace library are two different structures.

Following the construction of the ‘new’ Wallace Jr./Sr. High School just prior to the 2003/04 school year, the west educational wing was torn down to make way for the student parking lot — so similar to its former counterpart on the west side, the east wing could also be torn down and the auditorium could remain.

The next Civic Auditorium Committee meeting is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 24 at the Wallace School District Office in Silverton.

If you are interested in being a part of the discussion, please contact Todd Howard at 208-753-4515.