By Mary L. Grady

The new Federal Way Boys & Girls Club is being constructed in partnership with the Federal Way School District and a federal Head Start preschool and daycare in South King County.

The new club, still under construction, is called EX3. It is specifically designed to serve teenagers. A similarly designed EX3 teen center concept is included in the PEAK proposal for the North Mercer campus on Mercer Island.

The 16,000 square foot Federal Way facility is located adjacent to the 200-student Truman Alternative High School and the 11,000 square foot Head Start center. The campus is situated north of the Interstate 5 and South 320th Street interchange near SeaTac Mall.

The center will include a multi-use regulation-sized gymnasium, a recording studio, a computer lab, food preparation facilities, a games room and other multi-purpose rooms. The club expects initially to serve 75 to 100 teens daily.

However, construction has stopped cold at the new club, originally set to be completed in time for summer. There is a problem with a public grant. Some legal details need to be worked out before construction can begin again. Boys & Girls Club administrators said the snafu concerning the $350,000 grant will be solved soon and the club will be open by the start of school this fall.

The Boys & Girls Club is leasing the land from the Federal Way School District for $1 per year for 50 years. The district paid for an environmental assessment and some land preparation and installation of utilities, as such improvements were already taking place for the alternative high school and the Head Start.

By partnering with the Boys & Girls Club, the school district has access to the teen center for additional activity space during before and after school hours. The use by the school district will reduce expenses through shared use and provide operating revenue to the club, Boys & Girls Club administrators said.

The district and the club held focus groups and conducted surveys with adults and teens from Federal Way to determine how to better support teens in South King County.

More than one-third of the students in Federal Way School District qualify for free and reduced lunches. More than two-thirds of the existing Federal Way Boys & Girls Club members are considered economically disadvantaged. More than 78 different languages are spoken in the school district.

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North Mercer/PEAK project at a glance

The Boys & Girls Club (BGC) and a group of Island athletic boosters led by Blair Rasmussen came to the Mercer Island School District with a proposal for a facility late last year. The group hoped that the school district with its need for more classroom space at high school would consider participating in the project, help with funding and allow the facility to be built on district land near the high school.

The current Mercer Island Boys & Girls Club facility is the oldest of the dozen clubs in King County according to BGC officials, and is in the worst shape.

The Island BGC was in the midst of a fund raising campaign to renovate their building on West Mercer Way when the idea to partner with the school district came about. As the owner of the project, BGC will need to sell the club property on West Mercer Way to finance the majority of the project.

The proposal is still in a conceptual phase. The BGC needed input on design and funding from its partners before conducting more detailed planning.

As it now stands the facility will have:

? A 40,000 square foot footprint. It will be most likely located on the west side of the school district property north of the school district administration building.

? If final approval is given, the school district would enter into a long term lease on the land with the BGC. It is likely to be leased for a $1 a year.

? Operational costs will be shared proportionately between the district and the club based on use.

? The building may be two stories high with the lower level set into the hillside.

? Preliminary plans call for four gymnasiums, a teen center with an Internet cafe and a recording studio, and community space.

? The school district will convert some gymnasium space at the high school into classrooms. The displaced sports will be moved to the new BGC.

? The BGC facility will require 120 parking places, some of which could be gained by re-organizing existing parking areas.