Selma Center gearing up for Farmers Markets, Cycle Oregon
From our weekly issue dated May 13, 2009
Since becoming chairman of the Selma Community Center’s Board of Directors last November, Jim Tehan has started to lay a foundation for its future.
At the top of Tehan’s list is making the facility, the former Selma Elementary School, as self-sufficient as possible. To do that, he has increased efforts to rent several of the rooms in the building to community groups.
“We want to do that just enough that it pays the liability insurance, heating and the power bill,” he said.
Tehan also would like to establish some savings for capital improvements. The center still is owned by Three Rivers School District (TRSD), but Tehan said that body has “absolutely no funds” for the building.
The TRSD Board of Education recently approved a 10-year lease for the facility. Tehan hopes to someday change that arrangement. “I’d really like to get in a position where someday we’d be able to buy it off them,” he said.
In the short term, Tehan is concentrating on the Selma Farmers Market, which will open at the center in June. Tehan said that he would like to establish a flea market and other activities in conjunction with the market.
Also being considered by Tehan are ways to expand the programs offered at the center; establish monthly community dinners; and improve the landscaping.
“I have a lot of things I’m trying to do, it just takes time,” he said.
But perhaps most exciting of all is the fact that more than 2,200 riders from Cycle Oregon plan to stay at Lake Selmac on Sept. 15. Riders will represent 12 countries and all 50 U.S. states.
“This is one of their favorite rides in Southern Oregon,” Tehan said.
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Many area nonprofit organizations, including Selma Community Center, will assist with events, Tehan said. The Illinois River Valley Arts Council will handle hospitality, he said, and the I.V. Boosters Club will coordinate meal service and toting luggage.
“That will generate around $6,000 for the Booster Club for the kids of the Illinois Valley,” Tehan said.
Aside from all that, Tehan said that he plans to ask the center’s board of directors about possibly applying for grants to help clear some of the algae at Lake Selmac.
“It’s the only lake in Josephine County,” he said. “It’s the only safe place we’ve got for youngsters to go fishing.”
A grant is being pursued to help heat the center’s gymnasium, which also serves as its performing arts center. And auditions are being held for a melodrama production.
Tehan said that he mostly wants to make the center open and inclusive to as many people as possible.
“We’re really pushing that we’re nonpolitical,” he said. “This is for the people of the community.”
For more information regarding Selma Community Center, phone 597-2455 or 660-5232.
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