The Salvation Army may soon have a bigger presence in Somerville than the bell-ringers at supermarkets during the holidays.
The Cambridge-Somerville corps has submitted the first phase of its application to host a new Salvation Army community center. About 20 other corps in the eastern region, including Worcester and Dorchester in Massachusetts, are applying for between eight and ten available centers.
Between 30 and 40 centers will be built nationwide, split between eastern, western, northern, and southern regions. The money for the project, between $350 and $400 million, came from the Kroc family. When Joan Kroc - the wife of the late McDonald's founder, Ray Kroc - died in 2003, she left $1.5 billion to the Salvation Army for community centers, half for construction and half for maintenance.
Before Kroc died, she gave $90 million for a center in San Diego, on which the other Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Centers will be modeled.
"We're competing with a lot of other communities," Steve Winslow, a planner in Somerville's Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development, said. "We think we put in a good application; we hope it comes forward, but it's definitely a very competitive process."
The center, which would be located on the border of the two towns on Somerville Avenue next to Conway Park, would have a gym, a pool, a theater, classroom space and studios for dance, music and art. The site is currently an old ice arena and parking lot.
"There's an incredible amount of programming and developmental needs in the community," Somerville Mayor Joe Curtatone said. "The type of impact it would have would be vast and lasting.
The center would offer classes on "everything from English as a second language to how to balance your checkbook," Winslow said. It would focus on educational and recreational programming for several demographics, including teenagers, immigrants, and working class people.
Phase 1 of the application, the Feasibility Proposal Phase, asks cities to outline where the center would be and demonstrate a community commitment to build the center.
"A lot of people in the community have promised future support, and given current support to try to make this happen," Tufts Director of Community Relations Barbara Rubel said.
Arrowstreet, an architectural firm based in Somerville, provided preliminary designs for the center free of charge.
Rubel assisted with the project by getting a letter of support from President Lawrence Bacow. "If this center comes to Somerville, I think there will be many ways that Tufts will be involved and be supportive," she said.
The University may be involved with the center, Rubel said, through language tutoring, theatrical performances, and athletics.
The center would be a "quality of life enhancer" for the community, Curtatone said, and the needs of the Cambridge and Somerville are unique in the region. "It would reach a much larger universe...than any other proposal that they're reviewing at this point," he said.
William Shea, the chairman of the Salvation Army Kroc Foundation, said Somerville's history as a large immigrant community and its experience with gang violence, suicide, and low household income make the city a viable candidate. "Somerville qualifies as well as any community," he said.
Curtatone also said the center could attract businesses to the area and help create a more "knowledgeable workforce."
Winslow agreed that the center would "build the human capital that makes an economy like Somerville's grow."
The cities' next step is the Development Proposal Phase, where candidates must demonstrate community need and support for the project. The final phase is the Design Development Phase, at which point the chosen communities would begin receiving funding for designing the centers and obtaining land.
The Salvation Army hopes to break ground on some of the centers as soon as late 2006 or early 2007. "There's a lot more that needs to happen to actually make this come real," Winslow said. "We've got our fingers crossed."
