Longtime island HVAC system provider Bainbridge Heating and Air will donate a brand new ductless heating system to the Fort Ward Community Hall project.

Bainbridge Heating owner Curt Carlisle pledged the system, valued at $5,500, to the community hall campaign this week.

“This is a very generous donation, and a real boost for the community hall project,” said Douglas Crist, a Fort Ward resident and campaign volunteer to restore the fort’s historic bakery building as a public hall. “We’re just now stepping up our outreach to local businesses for in-kind donations of materials and support, and we’re grateful to Curt and Bainbridge Heating for being first to answer the call.”

Carlisle said he was impressed by the neighborhood’s efforts to restore the building, constructed in 1910 as part the Coast Artillery Corps fortifications that guarded Rich Passage and the Bremerton Naval Shipyard.

“It’s a neat building with a great history, and it’s going to make a great resource for the whole island community,” Carlisle said. “We’re pleased to be able to help out.”

The Fort Ward Community Hall campaign was launched to restore the historic brick building on Evergreen Drive for use as a small public hall like those in the Seabold, Island Center and Yeomalt neighborhoods.

The building is owned by Kitsap County Sewer District No. 7, and will be managed by the Bainbridge Island Metro Park & Recreation District.

The first phase of the project will bring the building up to standard for public use, lowering the floor that was raised in the past to accommodate an oil furnace and adding the new ductless heating system. New kitchen and restrooms will also be added, and the building’s original facade restored.

A future phase will bring the building back to a more complete and accurate historic restoration, reopening windows that were bricked over when the building was converted to a power station for Fort Ward’s naval radio operations during World War II.

Most of Fort Ward, a nationally recognized historic district, was surplussed by the federal government in 1960, and the bakery building has served as a private residence off and on since that time. It was purchased in 2007 by the sewer district, which operates the Fort Ward wastewater treatment plant, and the district will retain a corner office in the building.

Pledge sheets for the Fort Ward Community Hall project can be downloaded at www.fortwardhall.org, an information clearinghouse on the campaign.

Any community group or potential donor that would like more information on the project can email fortwardhall@gmail.com to arrange a presentation and building tour.

For more, go to www.fortwardhall.org.