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8299274.pdf_chamber-will-dismantle-downtown-pavilion-look-for-new-location

After years of providing shelter for a multitude of different community events, the downtown pavilion will be taken apart sometime before mid-September and put into storage until it can find a new location. The Front Street property owner wants the lot back.

Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Tracey Martin said the wooden pavilion will need to be stored somewhere until the chamber can find a new site to put it back up.

“We’ve had a lease for that spot in perpetuity with the owner of the lot for years,” Martin explained. “But he told us a few months ago that he wanted the pavilion gone before the end of August.”

The property owner, William Goodale, resides in Ketchikan. The Sentinel was unable to reach Goodale for comment.

“From the first day the chamber of commerce was first allowed to use that lot for the pavilion, it was clearly understood that it was temporary and the time would come when we would eventually need to move,” said Chamber President Sylvia Ettefagh.

“Bill let us use it for free as long as they (he and his wife) were named on the insurance coverage,” Martin said.

“We’re not exactly sure what the exact reason is, but we need to do as we’ve been asked,” she said. “I’m sure he has some kind of plan for that property — I’m just not aware of what those plans might be.”

Currently, the chamber doesn’t have a location in mind to house the pavilion.

“We will see about working with the city about storing the pavilion for the time being,” Martin said.

Martin said she is confident a new location will be found before next summer, which is when the shelter is most used.

“The pavilion was mainly used for the July 4 events and the royalty food booth,” she explained. “Between now and next summer, we should hopefully have a new home for the pavilion.”

Both Ettefagh and Martin said they like the idea of placing the covered pavilion at the waterfront, if the city moves forward with developing and adding to the waterfront as part of a deal with American Cruise Lines, which wants a new dock for its ships to tie up overnight.

“Obviously, other things will need to happen first,” Ettefagh said. “As that area is filled in and developed, I think it would be nice to have a covered pavilion there that could be used for community events.”

Without a pavilion, events could return to the streets and sidewalks.

“In the old days when I ran for royalty,” Martin said, “we set up tables on the street to sell food. We need a new place to put the pavilion or we will be back to tables on the street.”