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Dora Sitkum Rural Fire Protection District
The above picture depicts the Dora Sitkum RFPD after project completion.
Click here to read the October 2005 newsletter
Click here to see the site plans
Click here to see the floor plans
Please help Dora-Sitkum RFPD
serving Dora, Sitkum,and McKinley
remodel our community center,
build a new fire hall,
and expand our library!
Help us preserve our little piece of America!
Donations of any size will help us quailfy for additional grants.
Click here for pledge sheet
Or use PayPal!
Building Project
Dora-Sitkum RFPD is now in the process of planning—and finding funding for—a major building project. The project includes building a new four-bay fire hall, doubling the size of the library, building a new multi-purpose room, and doing major remodeling and repair to the existing building, which is to be used as a community center.
This is a project with an estimated cost of around $900,000 and, as might be expected in a job this size, the whole process at times moves slowly. (Think loaded dump truck pulling Hungry Mountain). Nonetheless, the project, like the dump truck, is getting steadily closer to where it is heading.
Grants and donations will fund this project—only about $7,000 will come from the fire department’s reserve fund, which was slowly built up from a very much no-frills budget. Local donations and pledges from the Dora Friendly Club, individuals, and businesses currently add up to more than $30,000. This is an incredible show of support. Thanks very much, everyone who has or who will donate time, money or materials to make this thing happen!
These local contributions are doubly valuable, in that the foundations that might give us grants for the rest of the funding consider it very important to see strong local support before they award any grants.
One Grant in Hand, but Not Yet Spendable
A grant award can be as slippery a catch as any native trout, and each one involves different strategy and tackle. Each grant application involves many steps and a good deal of waiting between steps.
Right now, we have already been awarded one grant: $50,000 from the United States Department of Agriculture. These funds will be used mostly for the Community Center and library, but cannot be spent until we have secured more funds from other sources.
This is one of the tricky things about funding this project. the community center/library portion of the project, although made up of many small parts (new heating system, better restrooms, bigger library, etc.), is seen as one big project by the USDA and the Ford Family Foundation (for example). Some grantors want to see that we have lined up enough money and other resources to do the whole job before actually releasing their grant money for us to spend. This means a longer wait before we can get the library/community center show on the road.
Block Grant Has Single Purpose
The single biggest chunk of funding on the horizon is a Block Grant from the Oregon Economic and Community Development Department (which in turn gets the money from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.) This grant for $427,000 is actually awarded to Coos County, which then makes it available to us. (Many thanks to County Commissioner Nikki Whitty for working to get this grant for us!)
The Block Grant folks told us recently that we may be awarded this grant within the next two months. Then there is more waiting until we can actually use the money, which will be administered by a professional project administrator.
Grants usually come with strings attached. One string attached to the $427,000 Block Grant, is that it can ONLY be used to build the new fire hall. This grant is not available for our community center or library. Those parts of the building project will be covered by other sources—such as the USDA grant, local contributions, and other grants that are pending, applied for, or on our list to apply for.
We could not have applied for a Block Grant to do any part of the community center/library part of the project, because, for various reasons, in our particular case, these uses did not qualify for this grant. New fire halls do qualify, however, and we ought to be able to build a darn good one!
It’s possible that later this winter or coming spring, one community group or another will be pulling on extra sweaters or dodging water drops from a leaky roof down at the old Dora School–while listening to nails being pounded into a brand-new fire hall–and will wonder about our priorities. It isn’t a matter of priorities. It’s a matter of what grant applications had the earliest deadlines, and what specific things those grants can be spent on.
Stalking the Wily Grant
Grant applications can take quite a bit of time to complete, but we are steadily moving along.
The next grant that we can expect to receive is from the Ford Family Foundation, founded by Kenneth Ford of Roseburg Lumber Co. This matching grant would probably be for $200,000, and would be mostly spent on the community center and library parts of the project.
Among the other foundations we will ask to fund our project are Plum Creek Foundation, The Miller Foundation, The Collins Foundation, Meyer Memorial Trust, and Oregon Community Foundation. We hope that applying to these and other organizations will result in the funds to do the entire project, and to do it to the full extent we first planned. We have been told that each grant we receive can make our project more attractive to other grantors—possibly because as funding is gathered, the project looks more and more likely to succeed.
Getting this building to happen is an all-volunteer effort, done by amateurs. Nonetheless, with a bit more time and effort, we fully expect the fine old school building in Dora to be fixed up into a fine new fire hall and community center! We can’t say for sure when any given part of the project will be started or completed, because we don’t know. We don’t know how flexible the various foundations will be about releasing funds for just a part of the project. We don’t know how much time the architect will need, or how long it will take to bid out the construction. All we know is we are making slow but steady progress in a fairly complicated process.
Take a Bow!
Ford Family Foundation has told us how impressed they are with the progress of our local fund drive, and with the spirit of the community as a whole. So–you-all step up and take a bow!
And Now a Word From Our Sponsors
If one of our tireless fundraising specialists has not knocked on your door, please consider making a donation of any size to our building project. Make checks payable to Dora-Sitkum RFPD. Send to P.O. Box 164, Myrtle Point, or drop off at the Dora Library. Thanks!
Questions about donations can be directed at Chris Seely, chair of the fundraising committee.
Project cost:
$961,600
Grant committed
- USDA Rural Development
$50,000
Grants pending
- Block grant
$427,000
Major donor
- Dora Friendly Club
$1,000
For more information, contact
Doug Backman, Fire Chief
Dora-Sitkum RFPD
15545 Sitkum Lane
Myrtle Point, Oregon 97458
541.572.0293
Chris Seely, Chairperson
Fundraising Committee
19283 Sitkum Lane,
Myrtle Point, Oregon 97458
541.572.2184
Betty Vaughn, Library Director
Dora Library
56125 Goldbrick Road
Myrtle Point, Oregon, 97458
541.572.6009
You can use your credit card or PayPal account to make a donation on line with PayPal! It is fast, free, and secure! Click on the "DONATE" button below.
NOTE: You can also use your Discover® or American Express® card with Paypal!
Or use our convenient pledge sheet if you would rather mail in your donation!
Click here for pledge sheet
All donations are welcome and are tax-deductible.
EIN 93-0915686
Make check payable to Dora-Sitkum RFPD
Mail checks and pledge sheets to
DORA-SITKUM RFPD
P.O. BOX 164
MYRTLE POINT, OR 97458
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