This is follow-up story to Sunset Hill Community Association: Figuring out the next 90 years.

By Christy Wolyniak, contributor.

A bright, cheerful community building faces changes for its next 90 years after a decline in community involvement. On Sunday, the Sunset Hill Community Association opened its doors to hear the community’s thoughts on the purpose and plan for the building’s and association's future.

“The few, the proud, the bold,” SHCA President Lois Spiegel said as she introduced her handful of board members and volunteers to a packed audience.

Expenses such as heating and maintenance with so few volunteers left the board questioning the building’s purpose in the community. Programs and the sustainability of SHCA as a value to its community reined the conversation.

"I call it the ‘rate of burn.’ We’re fine for a couple more years. Right now we’re breaking even," said SHCA board member Robert Drucker Drucker in regards to the financial deadline of the building.

SHCA has roughly $18,000 saved in their checking and savings and has a current mortgage of $30,000.

“This is unique. It’s you . . . and what it will be is up to you and how you sustain it,” said Spiegel.

The building itself was important to the Sunset Hill community but it seemed that the lack of programs led to a decrease in involvement.

“I moved to the neighborhood three years ago was never attracted to SCHA. I have never seen anything that pulled us over. I’d like to see [a program surrounding] food and cooking, like canning together,” suggested Babette Saltzman.

Some suggested a monthly community dinner, more affordable renting policies for events, joint programming from outside organizations such as the Phinney Neighborhood Association, and transit advocacy to save the route 17 bus. Trash and heating expenses also needed to be lowered significantly.

“We are prepared to help with knocking on doors and letting people know we’re here,” said community member Kara. “It’s also hard to rent an event space. You should be making it easy for people like me who would like to give you hundreds of dollars to rent.”

Others spoke on the expensiveness to rent for an event even with a membership, as prices were deterring some from choosing SHCA as their event destination.

“It’s difficult to rent here, it’s too expensive. I’d be willing to create a rental structure that makes sense for someone. Even as a member, my 15 percent off of $380 is still too expensive for a kid’s party,” said SHCA member Julie Pearson.

Although the association does not want to be primarily a rental facility, it does rely heavily on renters for its survival as renters provide the most income for the building, according to Drucker.

Some people wanted to participate in SHCA, but its geographical boundaries prohibited them from becoming active members. Currently the boundaries are from 24 Avenue NW to the water, and the Ballard Locks to NW 85th Street.

“We need to decide what our mission is, why do we exist? Is this just a rental facility or is it a community center? We need to decide what people want it to be and how to make that happen,” said Susan Freccia, PTA president at Adam’s School.

After the meeting ended, members and community participants came to the front and assigned their names to programs and solutions to move forward and reinvent what SHCA is to its community. Future community discussions like the one that took place Sunday was highly encouraged by the audience.

Community member, Holly Gold spoke of the importance of communication as an organization. “If you can’t communicate as a group, it’s [going to hard to dream up ideas together. I would hate to see this drop off the face of the earth after this.”