On Friday, we mentioned the list of city-budget amendments that District 1 Councilmember Rob Saka is mulling as the council goes into the next phase of budget revision/review. Another West Seattle project on his possibility list: The Highland Park Improvement Club rebuild. HPIC trustee Kay Kirkpatrick sent word of this along with a status update on the project, 4+ years after fire gutted the historic community center:
HPIC (the Highland Park Improvement Club) is thrilled to be moving along with our next Phase of Replacement of the HPIC building lost to fire in 2021. This groundwork phase includes utilities upgrades and footing & foundation strengthening.
We’ve included some photos of interesting points that happened over the last couple of weeks; including replacement of our power pole (above) and transformer with upgrade to the alley service line, trenching power conduit to the building wall, and trenching for footings for the west side deck and trellis.
The digging of the deck trench revealed old historic footings from the Barbershop that stood west of the first version of the HPIC building in the 1930’s.
As we do this work we continue to fundraise for our next phase, Framing and Dry-In of the building structure. We are thrilled that Councilmember Saka has included HPIC in this proposed list of amendments to the City Budget, which would make significant City funding available to help complete reopening this vital Community Resource.
We are asking fellow D1 residents to consider taking a few minutes to lend support by contacting City Council members as they deliberate on these proposals.
Councilmembers’ official lists of proposed amendments are expected to go public tomorrow. Starting 9:30 am Tuesday, they will be reviewed, department by department. There are also opportunities for public comment – see the Tuesday agenda (which will be updated tomorrow) for information on that.
