An old, red barn that sits along the Green River could be just what Kent needs to preserve a piece of farming history.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Sharon Bersaas and Nancy Simpson are leading a drive to save the Dvorak Barn along Russell Road<\/a> so future generations can know the story about the city\u2019s once booming agricultural industry before warehouses and distribution centers took over much of the Kent Valley.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s what started Kent,\u201d said Bersaas as she stood last week near the barn. \u201cWe were the lettuce capital of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Efforts are underway to save the barn, built in 1925, because it sits in the path of a proposed Lower Russell Road levee expansion by the city and the King County Flood Control District. The city bought the property in order expand the levee to increase flood protection and change insurance requirements if the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) certifies the levee.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019d just hate to see the barn destroyed and bulldozed because it represents so much,\u201d Bersaas said. \u201cWe thought what a wonderful venue this would make. It could be a interpretive center, brewery, community center, restaurant or gallery.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Kent Mayor Suzette Cooke invited Bersaas and Simpson to a City Council meeting last month so they could tell the council about the movement to save the barn.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The David Neely family came to Kent in 1854 and later received a land grant of 320 acres near the river that includes the barn. The barn is named after the Dvorak family that last farmed the land. A farmhouse and several outbuildings also remain on the property and must be removed for the levee improvements.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Bersaas formed a task force to help keep the barn, possibly by moving it to a new location. She has started to get estimates about how much it would cost to restore and move the barn. The first company told her it could move the barn to the city\u2019s nearby bird sanctuary for about $600,000, which would include building a foundation for the barn. She\u2019s waiting for a response from a second company.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Other potential locations for the barn could be on city property next to the Neely-Soames Historic Homestead along the Green River or the old Smith Brothers dairy on West Valley Highway now owned by the Carpinito brothers and operated as a nursery.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Bersaas wrote a proposal to the Seattle-based Washington Trust for Historic Preservation<\/a> to get the barn on the group\u2019s Most Endangered Historic Properties in the State of Washington. In April, the barn made the list.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Chris Moore, executive director of the Washington Trust for Historic Preservation, said the group\u2019s goal with the list is to raise awareness of the issue. He said it also provides support to advocates trying to save historic buildings.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cWe work with stakeholders and offer advice and guidance, such as with barn restoration or even moving the building,\u201d Moore said in a phone interview.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Because the levee project must go through a regulatory process, Moore said his group will help make sure discussions about what to do with the barn are part of the proposal by the city and county.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cWe will be the voice for the barn,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s endangered because of the levee improvements. We are not opposed to the levee improvements and do not intend to stop the levee process. But we want to ensure that the barn and homestead are considered as part of the project. If there is a way to save it or move it or commemorate it another way, we want to make sure that is part of the discussion.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The federal government also could play a role in what happens to the barn. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is responsible for leading the regulatory process, including determining whether the property is eligible for the national Register of Historic Places, said Allyson Brooks, a historic preservation officer with the state Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cThe barn will fall under the Section 106 process\u2026otherwise known as Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act,\u201d Brooks said in an email about the process that requires federal agencies to take into account the effects of their undertakings (such as a levee improvement) on historic properties.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n If the property is considered eligible for historic recognition, then federal and state agencies must determine ways to avoid, minimize or mitigate the adverse effects.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n