KINCAID — Ann Donaldson and a score of other volunteers have turned the old Kincaid school, abandoned as a high school in 1967 and as a middle school six years ago, into an inviting community center.
On the second floor of the center, the library opened today for the first time.
“We’ve been drumming up people to check out books and I think we’ll have quite a few stop by,” said Donaldson, president of the community center board.
The library features hundreds of books, videos, two computers and a printer. One side is exclusively for children. It will be open from 4 to 7 p.m. on Wednesdays and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays.
Its opening pretty much completes the project started two years ago.
The initial meeting had its share of doubters and even Donaldson and others on the enthusiastic side weren’t sure they could pull off converting the school to a community center. The structure wasn’t in distressing condition, but it hadn’t had any attention since its closing and furnishings were needed. Kincaid has a population of about 130, and the task, particularly raising money, seemed daunting for such a sparsely populated area.
The City Council climbed aboard, though, and that proved a financial godsend.
A U.S. Department of Agriculture grant of $60,000 for rural development was floated through the city, with the provision that it had to be matched by $20,000 in local money.
“We raised enough for the match,” Donaldson said. Half the grant money went for an elevator.
A part of the arrangement was for city offices to move to the center, which are open 10 a.m. to noon on Wednesdays and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Fridays. Noon congregate meals are served there on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, with 10 to 15 people participating.
The center has a full kitchen with tables and chairs nearby as well as in an adjoining room with more tables and chairs for eating meals, or catching up on local gossip over a cup of coffee. Another large room is outfitted with half a dozen eight-foot-long tables and ample chairs to host meetings, public gatherings and any private affair that would fit.
These meeting rooms are being booked for the holidays — there’s no charge for public events, modest amounts for private — and a community Christmas dinner is scheduled Dec. 11.
There’s also a gym where a long ramp gives easy access for the elderly.
“Some of the younger people have a running club and they’re going to buy more exercise equipment,” for the gym, Donaldson said.
“Having younger people here and interested in the center is important,” to its longevity, she observed.
ALL TOGETHER, proponents have raised $40,000, plus the $60,000 USDA grant. Most has been spent to get the center where it is today.
An out-of-state man who bought the building with plans that never were fully known locally, or developed, relinquished the school’s ownership to the community group to rid himself of the property tax liability, which Anderson County commissioners forgave in favor of the community group.
Fundraising came in several forms.
Last April’s KHS alumni banquet drew “quite a bit more than I expected,” in donations, Donaldson said of the 110 who attended.
Other efforts have included “ice cream socials, bake sales, whatever we could think of to raise money,” she added.
Contributions continue to baffle Gary Louk, board vice president: “I’d thought we’d be lucky to get $400 or $500 when we first started.”
Never underestimate small-town America, particularly this little burg in southeast Anderson County where the fall fair draws crowds of several thousand each year. They donated time and money when the project became known.
Kincaidians are proud of their town and the community center, prominent at the north end of Commercial Street and easily visible from the time a visitor pulls off K-31 half a mile to the south. In its upgraded condition it shines like a new nickel .
People are starting to use it, Donaldson said, moments after answering a cell phone call from someone inquiring about booking a room at the center for a family Christmas party.
Part of it, Louk added, may be that “everyone hated to see the building go down in a pile,” which in itself would have been a feat.
“Did you see that floor joist?” Louk asked, referring to one on display in the museum. “They’re 16-by-2 (inches) and there isn’t a knot in a single one. This building was really built well. You could have school in it today if you wanted to.”
A WALK THROUGH the center is a step back in time for many who graduated with one of the 31 high school classes tutored there from 1936 to 1967.
Louk recalled one older fellow who eschewed the elevator for a stroll by stairs to the second floor.
“He wasn’t afraid of the elevator, just said he wanted to walk up and get some exercise,” Louk said, although the real reason may have been remembrances that came with walking up the stairs as he had so many times years ago.
“We had a girl who was in a wheelchair when I was in school here,” said Louk, class of 1960. “We carried her and the chair up and down the stairs twice a day, even kidded her sometimes about turning her loose on the way down.”
Of course, there was no chance of that happening.
“We kinda looked forward to taking her up and down every day,” he added.
