| Petersen Elementary has served Sunnyside and East Carbon since the mid-1950’s. The building will now become the new Sunnyside Community Center. |
City officials have the deed. All they need now are the keys and Sunnyside can start moving into the city’s new home at Petersen Elementary School.
The city’s newest acquisition was the main topic at Tuesday’s council meeting even though Sunnyside has yet to receive the keys to building.
The 53-year-old facility was donated to Sunnyside by the Carbon School District in November and the building is earmarked to house city offices, the town’s maintenance operations and a variety of community and/or commercial concerns.
“We already have a whole list of people who want to get in to the space,” said Polly Sanderson, Sunnyside’s city recorder.
Sanderson said she has received calls ranging from a men’s basketball team and a catering service about reserving and renting space in the building.
But keys or no keys, Tuesday’s discussion was about the details of new ownership.
Councilmember Tony Riffle reported that he toured the building earlier in the day and, except for some clutter that needed removing, everything looked great.
“The building’s in pretty good shape,” said Riffle.
Energy conversation was on the councilmembers’ collective minds as the topic of their new headquarters moved forward.
Councilman Mike Marquez said officials were looking at shutting off portions of the building and turning off the heat in the areas to save on the energy costs.
Marquez said, however, the school district representative who is advising the city on the facility, warned that there could be a problem with the roof and possible freezing.
“We learned it is critical to keep the heat on in those areas,” said Marquez.
A representative from Siemens Building Technologies Inc., a company which analyzes buildings and surrounding areas for ways to be more energy efficient, is scheduled to be in East Carbon on Tuesday, pointed out Councilmember Shari Madrid.
Madrid suggested that the representative be asked to meet with the council to explain how the company might be of service in evaluating Petersen.
“He is going to be at ECDC advising them on how to recapture the gases from the facility,” said Madrid. “I was really excited when I heard about him and he said he would meet with us at anytime during the day on Tuesday.”
Additionally, the council discussed a letter the city had drafted to Carbon Commissioner Bill Krompel, asking for the county’s assistance concerning the main access road to the facility.
“The road is steep and very narrow,” she said . “It barely fits a car and we will have trucks needing to get up there on a regular basis.”
According to Sanderson, the city would look for help from the county engineers and perhaps some equipment.
“We may have to move it or change it and the county has the expertise to advise us,” said. Sanderson. “They are really good to us.”
Krompel said Wednesday that the type of assistance Sunnyside is looking for is something the county has provided to other towns in the past.
“We try to be good neighbors,” he said.
The commissioner said that he thought the best thing the city could do would be to bring whatever drawings and information they may have on the road to one of Krompel’s regular Monday afternoon meetings he holds with the county engineer and road supervisor.
Even though the building is still empty, it is shaping up to be a full service facility for Sunnyside.
Tenants who have space are the district’s pre-school and adult school.
In addition the wrestling program is being accommodated, according to Sanderson.
“We are looking at taking out a partition in two of the rooms for wrestling to have their floor space and keep their mats,” she said.
Sanderson said that there will be approximately 11 large rooms, the gymnasium and stage for the community and/or small business use.
“But we will make sure not to book the gym all the time because we want to have it available for public fundraisers as well,” said Sanderson.