This week, the Idyllwild community is invited to meet with the current Idyllwild Community Center (ICC) committee to express its wishes for the use of the site and to ask questions about its status and future.
The first opportunity will be 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 27. For those who miss or can’t attend this session, the committee has also scheduled a second meeting for 10 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 29. Both gatherings will be at Idyllwild School multi-purpose room.
“We have a two-fold goal,” said Bill Sanborn, chair of the revitalized ICC group. “First we want to inform the community of the status of the site and what it could be. Second, we want to open the floor up to questions.”
If a question stumps them, Sanborn said the group would take it back, do research and find the answer. But, he stressed that the event is not a public forum for debate, such as a candidate’s forum for a local special district. It’s about sharing information and establishing a community goal and direction.
If the community does not want a community center or wants to limit the current site to the proposed playground and concert venue, the committee will accept that response. However, if the community wants more for the site, such as a facility that can offer more community usage than Town Hall, the committee is fully prepared to initiate the planning and fundraising to accomplish that goal.
A virtual tour of the ICC site will be held from 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 13. The committee plans to lay out the dimensions and location of the proposed center. The perimeter of the facility will be outlined in tape and chalk. Artists’ drawings and renderings will depict what could take place inside.
“It’s a guided tour of an imagined facility,” he said. People will be available to answer questions about the playground, the center and its possible components.
Meanwhile, financial analyses of construction costs and operation and maintenance costs, including if a swimming pool were included, are being examined and prepared, according to Sanborn.
