The Santiam Teen Center may be getting a permanent home after the Stayton City Council chose to extend its lease and re-examine plans to demolish the building for a park.
During the council’s Aug. 21 meeting, they finalized a lease extension with New Growth Ministries, which operates the program, for the center’s current building at 2800 Kindle Way.
The council gave initial approval July 17 and expressed strong support for both the teen center and Executive Director Katrina Casas.
“Anything that gives us the ability to better-serve the youth of this community is badly needed,” said Councilor David Patty, telling Casas “We’re your partner.”
The city acquired the building, a triple-wide manufactured home, in 2017 after purchasing 23 acres along Mill Creek for construction of a multi-use park. During the next two years, the city developed the Mill Creek Neighborhood Park Master Plan, which proposed multiple facilities including a playground in place of the building.
Other proposed facilities include a baseball field, soccer fields, basketball court, skatepark, walking trails and picnic shelters. The city is pursuing grant funds for park construction and there is currently no specific timeline for breaking ground.
While the park plan was taking shape, the building sat vacant and in 2018 the city signed a temporary lease with New Growth Ministries, which opened the teen center the following year. At this time the city expected the building would ultimately be removed once park construction began.
The teen center has since become a staple of the community, providing after-school programs for teens within walking distance of both Stayton Middle School and Stayton High School. The program is open Tuesday to Thursday from 3 to 6 p.m. for 7th through 12th graders and often serves between ten and 20 students per day, according to a city report.
The same report said New Growth Ministries has made around $25,000 in improvements to the structure including ADA access and laundry facilities that can be used by families in need.
In January the council began discussing a potential lease extension and community groups came out in support of keeping the program at its current location.
The Stayton Sublimity Chamber of Commerce said in a Jan. 17 letter to the city the teen center and any future park can coexist, as the park would open up teen center programs.
Stayton Middle School Assistant Principal Matt Olson was already drumming up support for the center in 2022. In a letter to the city that May, he said the impacts of the center have been “incredibly positive” and in his three decades living in Stayton he has not seen a program like it.
In the approved lease extension, New Growth Ministries is charged $1 per month and will pay for utilities and insurance for the building. It must operate as a teen center a minimum of 35 hours per month during the school year, and may be used for other non-commercial purposes outside of teen center hours such as fundraisers.
The council is now expected to discuss potentially amending the Mill Creek Neighborhood Park Master Plan to account for permanent use of the building as a teen center. The master plan allows the city to pursue grant funding and other forms of revenue for the park.
