'This is really about bringing people together'
NOTI, Ore. - Class has been out at Noti Elementary School for a decade, but the Fern Ridge School District still pays around $20,000 per year for the building to just sit there.
"Just to keep the bare minimum going and keep the buildings from falling down," explained Leontine Winters Krohn, president of the Noti Community Center.
She said her group has a solution for the district.
"Let people come in here," Krohn said. "Let's make this place alive again."
The community center doesn't have a building, and Krohn said they she want to buy the building from the district and fund it through community donations.
"Our school district basically told us we have any opportunity as a community to use it or we're going to lose it because they're going to sell it," she said.
Monday was the first day of the trial run for the Noti Community Center in the old school.
"We wanted a place for the whole community to be able to come together, where people of all ages can come together, if you have the talent and you want to teach it to your neighbors," Krohn said.
The community center will focus on the arts, an area that's been hit hard by recent budget cuts in districts around the area.
The kids in the creative writing class said it's something they've been missing at school for a while.
"Well, they're fun, they're not like school. They're fun," sixth-grader Cedars Marshall said.
"Typically, in rural Oregon, communities with not have a lot of money," Krohn said, "but we do have talent and big hearts, and so this is really about bringing people together that want to share and build community again."
Saw you on KVAL news tonight and it touched me to the core remembering our history in Noti........ My husband and i were married at the Noti Assembly of God almost 24 yrs. ago and want to support you in your efforts to preserve this community. I would love to offer my Sign Language Dance class for Free! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdbMjb0zJUM Please contact me if you are interested........
An arts center in NOTI?  Give me a break. Veneta has been trying to get a struggling "Arts Council" going for 20 years. The only real reason they would be considering that is so even more taxes can be used to fund the place and consequently more gov-funded employees..
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Tear the place down and quit maintaining it. How many books and other school supplies can be bought for the rest of the district with that $20?
 @OregonOratorWow seriously? You are WAY off base. Neither the city of Veneta or the school district is running the program. It's being run as a Non Profit therefore there are no tax dollars involved and no government employees. Many of the "employees" are people from the community volunteering their time to offer arts education to students in the community. In fact the director is neither associated with the city of Veneta or the school district but rather a resident of Noti.
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And yeah the idea is that the school district can sell the property, stop spending to maintain it and maybe use the extra money elsewhere.
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Next time try reading the article. It doesn't speak of the city of Veneta as funding or running the program nor the school district trying to run it. Rather it specifically states the school district is selling the property so they won't have to keep spending unnecessary dollars to maintain it.Â
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Thus far the group at the community center is doing an amazing job bringing arts programs out to area youth and adults. Hats off to them!