New donations help Meadow Vista center near completion

Although it looks complete from the outside, Meadow Vistans still have several months to go until their long-awaited community center opens.But recent donations of services may be the shot in the arm the Meadow Vista Community Center committee members were hoping for.The building still needs water, septic and drainage. Walkways and disabled access must be installed. Additional work remains inside, including electrical drywall. Center committee members estimate $900,000 more is needed to finish the building.Bollo Construction and Bayne Construction Inc. recently offered to do some of this finalizing work at no cost.Ed Bayne, president of Bayne Construction, and his wife both grew up in Meadow Vista and still reside there today. Bayne, who runs the Sacramento-based construction company with his sons, Eddie and John, approached the committee recently with an offer to help."There's been a lot of people working on it for a long time," Ed Bayne said. "There's an awful lot of people interested, but not too many capable of helping in large ways, in the big construction part of it."Bayne Construction will be bringing the main water line to the facility in the next month or so, Bayne said, doing the work on weekends, when his crews aren't doing other jobs.Bollo Construction has also stepped forward to help with the walkways and handicap ramps. Concrete would be provided by Chevreaux Aggregates. The county has given the go-ahead for a partial opening of the building, once work on the 1,000-square-foot front room is complete, perhaps in September, committee members say.But for a project that's been in the works since the 1960s, a few more months is nothing to longtime board members Bruce and Celia Broadwell."Well, I think we've seen progress. People still are enthusiastic," Bruce Broadwell said. "Both of us are the kind of people who have vision. We realize a vision is something you don't just throw aside because it's something you can't do quickly."The former teachers took over the project in 1993, after he retired from Sierra College and she from Placer Hills School. Thanks to dedicated board members and benefactors, the project has moved forward, Broadwell said. He estimates some $900,000 has been donated in services, materials and cash. "People who step to the floor and do such very significant donations and projects, it fires you up," Bruce Broadwell said.Crews broke ground on the center in 2005.The land is owned by the Auburn Recreation District, which reached an agreement with the community center board last year to lease the property for $1 a year for 50 years."That allows us to then create our own programs, independent of ARD or any restrictions," said board member Fred Eichenhofer. "We can create our own programs and don't have to wait for or seek approval with ARD to implement programs. But we have to be self-sufficient and can't rely on them to cover our overhead."The 7,300-square-foot multipurpose center will allow for large or small meetings in one of two rooms. There will be a stage with seating for around 250 people. The community center board also hopes to outfit the building as a youth center, with pool tables, computer stations and tutoring spaces."I grew up in Meadow Vista as a kid. After third grade through service, I terrorized that town and felt I owed them something," said Robert Boeger, 60, of Robert Boeger Plastering, which donated the stucco work. "This gives them a little more space to hold social events. The only place growing up as kid was the gym at Placer Hills, the grange hall, or one of the churches. This center is not tied to something, it's open to more of the people."The Journal's Michelle Miller-Carl can be reached at michellem@goldcountrymedia.com. ----------How to helpIf you would like to donate or volunteer to help complete the Meadow Vista Community Center, contact board member Erv Morgenthal at (530) 878-7977 or Bruce Broadwell at (530) 878-2272 or mail donations to Meadow Vista Community Center, PO Box 598, Meadow Vista, CA, 95722.