By ANNELI FOGT

Editor

Four island nonprofits are slated to receive more than $1 million as part of a plan to redirect millions of dollars from King County’s early payoff of the Kingdome to cultural organizations.

With a new performing arts center expected to open in April 2016, Vashon Allied Arts will be awarded $1 million to go toward construction costs for the center; Voice of Vashon is expanding into downtown and will receive $22,750 for the construction costs of the storefront studio; Friends of Mukai will be given $100,000 for restoration of the Mukai house, and the Vashon-Maury Island Heritage Association will be awarded $20,000 for a new foundation and seismic upgrades to the Heritage Museum. The four organizations were the only ones on the island to apply for the county-wide grants, according to county Councilmember and Chair of the council’s Budget and Fiscal Management Committee Joe McDermott. He said the grants are expected to be awarded later this month after approval by the county council.

For the island organizations that are expanding and building, the grants for construction are exactly what they need to finish the projects. With the grants, the construction costs of VAA’s performing arts center and VoV’s storefront studio are fully funded.

The largest of the local grants went to construction costs for VAA’s $19 million performing arts center. Scheduled to open in April as a venue for dance, choir, opera and orchestra performances, the center has been an expensive undertaking funded almost completely by local donations. VAA Executive Director Molly Reed told The Beachcomber last week that $3.2 million of the center’s funding is from government grants; the remaining $15.8 million has come from local funding and private donors.

“It’s really great to get this financial support,” Reed said. “A big allocation like this is very gratifying. It’s just amazing.”

Reed said that the center’s construction has been a long, tough process, but now that she can see the vision literally take shape before her eyes, it’s much easier. A multi-million-dollar donation from islander Kay White began the process in 2007, and provided enough money to begin making the center a reality. The project, at times, became a polarizing community issue with some islanders throwing their full support and money behind it, while others doubted its necessity and felt the community had other issues that required funding and attention. The recession put the project on hold for years, and construction did not begin until April 2015.

“There was awhile there where I said I hadn’t slept in five years,” Reed said. “When they started construction, I could finally sleep.”

As the center rises up from the corner of Cemetery Road and Vashon Highway, a more modest project is taking shape closer to town.

Vashon’s local radio station Voice of Vashon announced in late October that it will open a storefront studio in the former quilt shop next door to Zombiez. The building was sold this spring to islanders Kelly Macomber Straight and Zabette Macomber, who will open a fitness studio next month. The couple reached out to VoV with the proposition for a storefront radio studio months ago, and the fundraising began.

VoV Station Manager Susan McCabe told The Beachcomber shortly after the Oct. 28 announcement that the station was $11,000 short of its $60,000 fundraising goal for the studio. Now, the $22,750 4Culture grant will cover the rest of  the construction costs, but McCabe said Thursday that the studio’s operating costs for at least the first year still need to be secured, as well as money for the upkeep of the equipment.

“It’s wonderful, and it really eases the burden to make this storefront studio happen,” McCabe said. “But we will have to keep it going. People are happy to build stuff, building stuff is fun, but people are less happy and less excited to keep it going.”

VoV board member Rick Wallace seconded McCabe by saying that the grant is very specific and can only be used for construction-related expenses like lumber, drywall and paint. He said the studio’s operating costs will be the real expense for the studio because it will be used extenstively.

“This is a big expansion because it will see heavy use,” Wallace said last week. “We’re expecting to be on air in late January. It’s very exciting.”

West of town, The Vashon-Maury Island Heritage Association (VMIHA) is going to use its $20,000 for seismic and foundation repairs at the museum, which is currently housed in a 108-year-old building. VMIHA President Deb Dammann said that the grant is a major step toward the $97,000 total needed to replace the century-old foundation.

“We’re thrilled and very grateful at VMIHA to have been awarded this grant by 4Culture,” Dammann said Monday. “To have been one of the recipients chosen for this is something we can’t take for granted because there were so many King County non-profit applicants.”

She said the organization has applied for numerous other grants to help fund the project and her fingers are crossed.

Meanwhile, Friends of Mukai, a group working to gain legal access to and restore the island’s historic Mukai Agricultural Complex, is going to use its expected $100,000 grant for restoration of the 1930’s house and gardens. The group has been locked in a legal battle for years with Mary Matthews, the woman who bought the home through her tax-funded Island Landmarks organization in 1999. Matthews bought the house with the knowledge that the home would need to be preserved and accessible to the public. However, it became apparent that Matthews was not obeying those rules, and in 2012 the Friends of Mukai formed to protect the property.

A long, legal battle enused, and in April, a judge ruled that Matthews was not a governing entity of Island Landmarks and ordered her to hand over the keys, home and property. Matthews and her legal team filed an appeal, and Friends of Mukai President Lynn Greiner said Friday that the group still does not have legal access to the property despite the April ruling and is waiting on an appeal hearing date. She said the group has won every lawsuit since 2013 and is confident this appeal will be in the group’s favor.

“(These grants) are so rare, and it was such a great opportunity, we felt we had to submit an application even though we don’t have control of the property at the moment,” Greiner said Friday. “We are very excited about the prospect of $100,000 and have hired Tacoma-based Artifacts Consulting to walk through and do a blueprint for restoration and artifacts.”

Greiner said the island organizations represented well during this grant cycle, and she was pleased to hear so many got sizeable grants. The sentiment was echoed by councilmember McDermott, who said he was also glad to hear about Vashon and the grants.

“I’m pleased Vashon is doing so well,” McDermott said.

The county’s cultural services agency, 4Culture, partnered with the county to distribute the Building for Culture grants. County officials said that the $28.5 million total is a one-time investment in the county’s cultural facilities and an extension of 4Culture’s annual grant program. The move is unprecedented, according to 4Culture’s Debra Twersky, and the largest grant cycle the agency has ever backed. The grants will fund 100 different arts and historical preservation projects throughout the county, including the four on Vashon.

“We’re all so excited to see (these projects) going up all throughout the county,” Twersky said last week. “And kudos to Vashon for being there and being ready.”

County officials said in a statement earlier this year that the program is made possible by the early retirement of bonds that originally financed Kingdome renovations. Despite the 15-year-long posthumous funding (the dome was demolished in 2000), the debt was paid off nine months ahead of schedule this March, leaving a surplus in funded bonds. Under state law, this surplus must go to arts and heritage facilities.

McDermott said the grants offer a chance for the county to catch up on organizations’ pent-up funding demands from the recession.

“It’s a rare opportunity,” McDermott said Friday. “Often when the county and 4Culture have capital grants like this, it’s only for larger organizations. This time, we wanted it to be open to smaller groups and organizations of all sizes throughout the county.”