HOLLAND, MI (WHTC) – The future of Holland’s Civic Center remains an unanswered question, but on Monday, nearly 30 people showed up to tour the aging building and start brainstorming.
Holland’s Civic Center Steering Committee, comprised of elected officials, city employers, farmers market vendors, civic and business leaders, hosted the meeting. Three residents also attended: Restauranteurs Butch ter Haar (Butch’s Dry Dock) and Jodi Rademaker (JK’s Bakehouse & Deli) businessman Ron Chavez.
Some, like committee member Rudy Stiver, saw parts of the building they’d never really thought about.
He said he found the basement “really watery, you know, and there’s a lot space down there. But it’s not real usable space because it’s so gross when you just get down in there.”
Several people eyed a long hall’s floor, covered in muddy water and turned away. Others picked their way through the mess to check out a large empty room.
The water table is just high enough to create recurrent problems said steering committee member and engineer Paul Elzinga of Elzinga & Volkers, Inc. He speculated that the Civic Center’s builders hadn’t fortified the building’s foundation against the water table.
As the group moved up the stairs, stopping to check out the catwalk over the gym area, then ascend a metal ladder to the roof, some shared memories of Civic Center events featuring world-famous musicians like Dave Brubeck or Hope basketball games.
Chavez said he has good memories but isn’t sentimental.
He’d like to “tear the whole thing down,” he said, envisioning a new, small convention center with a gym and a community outreach center.
He’s also pretty sure half of Holland wouldn’t like that idea.
“I think it’s almost 50-50 here in Holland,” he said, musing that divided opinion – which stymied previous efforts to renovate the Civic Center – will challenge committee members this time around. “Hollanders are very passionate about things.”
One committee member, Wendy Link of the Holland Area Convention & Visitors Bureau, said the Civic Center’s future should be kept fairly simple.
“My fear is, we try to make it all things to all people and not any of one those things is done the best way it possibly can be,” she said. That’s why public input is important, said project manager Greg Wykamp, as he collected names of groups that might also want to make suggestions: Tulip Time, area schools, recreation groups, churches, and civic organizations.
Nothing could be worse, Weykamp said, than having residents show up late in the planning process, feeling blindsided. The steering committee hopes to reach 90 percent of Hollands residents.
He’s scheduled public meetings no more than three weeks over the next three months. He told the committee Monday that by March 7, the group should be putting finishing touches on a recommendation for City Council members.
On Monday, he encouraged everyone present to think big, with the understanding that the $11 million planned for the project wouldn’t buy everything everyone wants.
Stiver, founder of the Fantabulous Fudge Company and one of three farmers market vendors on the steering committee, said whatever happens to the building must not harm the popular farmer’s market. At the same time, he said. the future Civic Center must also serve everyone in the community, not just a few.
The next public meeting is set for 7 to 9 p.m. Monday at Holland’s City Hall.
NOTE: This story has been corrected to reflect the accurate location of Monday’s meeting
