There’s been a lot of back and forth as to what the status of the Forks High School’s 1920’s era facade is.

Here’s a recap of exactly what is going down:

1) Initial plans called for the facade of the 1920’s era building to be left as a free-standing structure in tribute to the original building.(see artist’s rendering at left).

2) It was announced on Monday that unexpected costs to make the structure safe and stable would run far ahead of what was budgeted

3) Forks, due to a legal requirement, has to hold a public hearing to determine what if anything should be done to save the facade. The date for the hearing is not as of yet set. The Peninsula Daily News gave the specifics of this requirement:

“The conditional use permit granted by the city to do the construction work requires the district to give the public time to save the facade through alternate funding, Superintendent Diana Reaume said Monday.

The bid by Primo Construction Inc. of Carlsborg includes an alternate additional $271,000 to reinforce the facade to remain as a memory of the 1925 school building, the rest of which was torn down in June.

“Our efforts to save the facade are not over,” Reaume said.

Under terms of the city conditional use permit, the school district must hold a public hearing and give the public 45 days to come up with alternative funding, Reaume said.

The date for the hearing has not been set, but will be shortly, Reaume said.

“Also, even though the alternate bid [to reinforce the facade] was rejected at this time, the district has 45 more days to go back and accept any of the alternatives previously rejected,” she said.”

4) Approximately 2 years ago when the Lexicon visited the town, Lori, Laura and other Lexiconers talked to various town members about Twilighters doing something for Forks. This was prior to the movies being released and Breaking Dawn wasn’t yet in print when this conversation began. At that time there was talk of trying to save the entire building and the Twilighters for Forks (a charitable 501c3 corp) was established to raise funds that could go towards saving the building or for the youth of Forks should the building not prove savable. We supported that group’s efforts. It should be noted that this group has/had no official decision making capacity over Forks High School construction. They are not in any way part of the school administration, just people in town who cared and wanted to try to do something for the kids.

The fund is still active, they have not decided exactly what this money should go towards but they are weighing their options. There was some widespread misconception that this fund was a brand new effort to fund the facade when some Twilight fans found an old link on the Forks Forum website. That link has since been edited to remove the Lexicon name because we haven’t been involved with that fund in quite some time. To quote one of the fund administrators, :

“Now that we seem to be back in the spotlight again, I talked to Chris at the Forks Forum and we are looking at updating the Twilighters for Forks page to explain where we are at and what we propose to do with any contributions. Until we get some feedback from the school and the construction manager, we are not sure what to put on there.”

5) There are currently bricks from the old building being salvaged and sold as a fund raising effort for the Forks High School scholarship fund. The district superintendent also spoke about this to the Peninsula Daily News:

“Because of the many people with memories of the high school and actual Twilight fans with attachment to the building, the district is in the process of having 1,500 bricks from the demolished portion salvaged, Reaume said.

The bricks must be professionally cleaned, then will be put up for bid at the 2011 Forks Scholarship Auction.

The money from the auction will not be used to save the facade(emphasis Twilight Lexicon), Reaume said.

“That money will go right back to the kids,” she said”

6) We just got a press release from the Dazzled By Twilight store that is located in Forks. They are the folks that do the driving tours around town. They are collecting money that will hopefully go to saving the facade if that is in fact that the town actually decides to save it. This is their own independent undertaking; they are not a 501c3; they are not connected with or have the authority over the school in any way. If the facade is not going to be saved, they state, “If we don’t raise enough money to save the facade, all proceeds will be donated to the Forks School District Stadium Fund.”

As this story continues to develop, we will continue to bring you the latest updates.

The Peninsula Daily News updated their story about the pending demise of the Forks High School Facade that dates back to the 1920’s.

Their revised account states:

“School officials still hope that something can be done to save the facade at Forks High School as a freestanding monument on the redeveloped campus.

According to the conditional use permit granted to the Quillayute Valley School District by the city last summer, the district must hold a public hearing and give the community 45 days in which to find alternate funding to pay for reinforcing the brick facade.

Reinforcement and renovation would be required for the facade to remain as a stand-alone structure as a memory of the 1925 portion of the school, which figures descriptively in the Twilight saga of novels.

A date has not been set for the public hearing.

The board voted Friday night that the facade would be too expensive to pay for out of the bond issue passed by voters last February.”

The Forks Forum has also been covering the story. Their council is pictured above discussing the matter at a public meeting. (Photo credit: Chris Cook)  Their coverage states that:

“Of particular interest is how much the winning contractor will charge to restore and stabilize the facade of the section of the circa 1925 Forks High School that was spared when D&H Enterprises demolished most of the building over the summer. Estimated costs ran from a low of about $19,000 to a high of several hundred thousand dollars.

Some of the base bids announced ranged from $12.6 million to $14 million-plus. The final dollar figures of each bid opened will take several days to calculate. Construction work is scheduled to begin later this fall.
A $1.5 million woody bio-mass school heating plant is near completion, and a ribbon cutting is scheduled for mid-October. The plant is designed to use wood chips to heat the near addition.”

The original building of the Forks High School campus that dated back to the 1920’s was taken down earlier this year. When we were in Forks last year, one of the school staff members told us about how difficult is was to maintain the aging building. Just to heat it barely effectively they had to crank up an aging and inefficient system at 3:00am. Even then, the students were still wearing coats in the building.

Originally, it was hoped that the historic facade could be preserved, but this now seems impractical. According to the Penninsula Daily News:

“The School Board was hoping to incorporate the front of the building — left standing when the rest of the condemned structure was demolished last summer — into the design of the new campus.

The facade would have been left as a stand-alone structure as a part of a grand entrance to the school.

The brick design of the leaky old building figures heavily in the descriptions of the Twilight saga, which has propelled Forks and the West End to worldwide acclaim.

But saving the facade would cost $271,000 on top of the $12.2 million construction bid accepted Friday, and its just not feasible to spend the money that way, said Bill Rohde, School Board president.”

See more on the Penninsula Daily News.

Via Gossip Cop

According to the Puget Sound Business Journal:

““Twilight” tourism is widely credited for shielding Forks merchants from the recession, and state sales-tax data support that view.

Taxable retail sales statewide fell 15 percent to $100.8 billion between 2007 and 2009, according to data gathered by the state Department of Revenue. We have the recession to thank for that.

But in the city of Forks, taxable retail sales during the same period increased 15 percent to $46.2 million. In fact, Forks’ taxable retail sales in 2009 are the city’s highest in the Department of Revenue’s online database, which goes back to 1994. We probably have “Twilight” to thank for that.”

Much of this money is going to much needed renovation. The oldest portion of Forks High School that was built back in the 1920’s and which has been a complete nightmare to heat efficiently is now being torn down and a new building (where kids won’t have to wear coats in the winter) will be erected.

This is so not cool. Someone decided to take the sign from in front of the Forks home that has been tagged by the town as the unofficial Swan residence. It’s the second time this has happened. Additionally the Chamber of Commerce had to deal with the gas cap being stolen from the red Bella’s truck parked outside the information center.

So if anyone knows who took the sign, kindly return it! The Forks Chamber of Commerce is being very gracious and is not currently pressing charges, they just want the sign back.

Part of the appeal here is that it doesn’t look like a professinal tourism sign that is nailed down within an inch of its life (see above photo). It’s going to start to get ridiculous if they have to cement and bolt the sign down because people can’t leave what isn’t theirs alone!  TY to Christina for alerting us to this.

Forks Chief of Police for the last decade, Mike Powell has lost his job according to the Forks Forum. Newly elected mayor, Bryon Monohon, dismissed Powell.  Monohon, who just took office on January 1, 2010  issued the official statement, “I have determined that there is a need for new leadership in the Forks Police Department. As a result, and pursuant to FMC 2.30.010, I have dismissed Mike Powell from the position of Chief of Police for the City of Forks…In the days ahead I will be further assessing the direction and structure of the Forks Police Department.  In addition, I will be developing my expectations for the new chief of police in relationship to the operations of the Forks Police Department.”

Many Twilight fans have encountered Powell over the years and his afflable nature regarding the Twilight Saga and Charlie comparisons. He routinely would pose for picture and “arrest’ fans when asked time permitting. We met Mike last Summer while attending the Summer School in Forks Symposium and captured this video of him talking about how Twilight has impacted his life.