Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
Sunshine Industries has sailed easily through the city conditional use permit process and is gearing up for the next step in constructing a new building.
Sunshine is planning to more than double its size, Executive Director John Strickler said. “We had to get a conditional use permit in order to expand our services.”
The Planning Commission gave Sunshine Industries two years rather than the usual one to begin construction. Normally, a conditional use permit requires the developer to return for an extension if the project is not started in the first year.
Anticipating strong growth in the next few years, Sunshine Industries is looking to expand as well as replace old, deteriorating buildings.
Sunshine will spend at least the next year raising funds for the project, Strickler said. Sometime after the first of the year, Sunshine will do an official kickoff for its fund-raising efforts.
Sunshine had been hoping to kick off its fund-raising efforts by October but ended up putting it off.
“We had to get some of our ducks in a row,” Strickler said, and at the same time, the holiday season was coming up. Based on that, Sunshine held off.
The fund-raising process will include Sunshine raising its part, so the Community Services Consortium can raise its contribution, Strickler said. When those funds are combined, Sunshine will be able to pursue foundation funding and a Community Development Block Grant through the Oregon Economic Development Department.
Sunshine is estimating the project at approximately $2.3 million, Strickler said. Sunshine and CSC will need to raise $500,000 to $600,000, while they look for $800,000 in CDBG funds. The foundations, such as the Meyer Memorial Trust or Ford Foundation, typically contribute $700,000 to $800,000 to projects like this.
Sunshine is setting its goal at $700,000, Strickler said. Based on how much is raised, the organization may have to alter some of its plans, he said.
“We have to raise our part of the money first,” he said. “The foundations want to see community support.”
OEDD also wants to see foundation support, he said, and that’s the final piece. Once that funding is all in line, Sunshine officials are hoping to have everything in line by the first quarter of 2010 so Sunshine’s architectural firm, 2Form of Eugene, can get it out to bid and construction can start by the summer of 2010.
Retired Sweet Home High School business teacher Chuck Thompson is chairman of the fund-raising campaign.
“We’re going to take a multi-tier approach,” Strickler said, the same thing political candidates do to reach out to voters, from knocking on doors and bulk mailing to a both at the Jamboree next year and texting friends, looking for the small donations as well as the large ones.
“There’s no amount too small to donate,” he said. Five or 10 dollars add up fast. In the end, it doesn’t matter. Two bucks will help. We’re a local company. Your dollar counts.”
Sunshine has gone through town and made a list of every franchise business, he said. Most of them have some sort of corporate program they can go to and ask for donations.
“With Sweet Home and the economy the way it is now, we’re not going to get $700,000 out of the people in town,” he said. “We also will go outside our community.”
Sunshine serves developmentally disabled people all over the county and Corvallis, he said.
People interested in donating can deposit their donations to the Sunshine Industries donation account at Linn County Federal Credit Union. The money will be earmarked for building unless designated otherwise, for computers or the woodshop for example.
Sunshine is also looking at a merchant account so donations can be made by Visa or MasterCard at sunshineindustriesunlimited.com. The site is under construction.
This is the first time Strickler has been the center of a giant fund-raising campaign, but as program director at the time, he was aware of the Boys and Girls Club of Sweet Home efforts a decade ago to build the Jim Riggs Community Center. He resigned prior to the Boys and Girls Club moving to the new facility, but he remembers the alterations that had to happen to bring the project in to match the funds available, such as a smaller gym.
Sunshine could be and is prepared to go over its plans the same way if necessary, he said.
The organization won’t compromise on the “green” technology that is part of its plans, he said. The new building will use passive solar heating for water and certain functions. The building will have lots of natural light and plants around the structure. It will make use of recycled construction materials.
Useful materials from the old buildings will be offered to other groups and organizations, Strickler said. The windows in the Sunshine Industries main building are still useful for example.
“What here can we use someplace else?” he asked, suggesting that perhaps Habitat for Humanity could use the windows or the fixtures.
For more information, call 367-2765.