SWEET HOME - Wearing a purple and gold Los Angeles Lakers basketball jersey, Jake Long, 12, worked his way around the pool table at the Sweet Home Boys & Girls Club, methodically looking for his next big shot. A small crowd of youngsters formed as he and Josh Rice, 11, competed in a friendly after-school game.

The boys are among nearly 1,000 children who benefit from the club's many programs and neither could say how the building at 880 18th Ave. - which also houses the Senior Center and Jim Riggs Community Center - came to be nearly 10 years ago. After all, they were little more than toddlers when dozens of volunteers and the city built the $4 million facility, just one of several public projects this community of 9,000 residents has completed in the last 15 years. In all, more than $52 million worth of projects have been completed by the city and Sweet Home School District.

Several already are paid for.

The projects touch community members' lives in everything from public safety and health - a new $12 million water treatment plant that went online in September - to their children's' education - an $18.7 million renovation of the high school and upgrades at every elementary school in 2002.

The projects were completed in a community that lost more than 1,000 high-paying timber-oriented jobs in the late 1980s and nearly always deals with double-digit unemployment. At its darkest economic point in the early 1990s, the business district had 30 empty storefronts.

"Things were pretty ugly at times," said Craig Martin, who has been city manager since 1997 and who lived in Sweet Home for part of his youth.

Martin said the secret of community building progress has been four-fold: A large number of willing volunteers - many from the logging and timber industries - who have heavy equipment and construction skills; a forward-looking city council and school board; the willingness of residents to take on bond debt and leveraging tax money with state and federal grants.

Mayor Craig Fentiman agrees. Fentiman has served on the city council since 1988 and has been mayor on and off about half of that time.

"It seems overwhelming when you talk about all of the projects at once," Fentiman said. "But we have taken it one piece at a time, one project at a time. We're always looking forward and trying to not look back, rather than saying ‘woe is us, the economy is bad.'"

Fentiman said that from a major projects viewpoint, "we're in very good shape. We're always trying to keep facilities as up to date as possible, and I think - compared to other small towns - we're doing very well."

A factor, Fentiman said, is that the council and staff try to keep costs as low as possible, building with room for growth but without going overboard or placing undue burden on taxpayers.

Some 20 years after the community's core timber industry was bombarded by the listing of the Northern Spotted Owl as an endangered species, Sweet Home has moved on, Martin said, recognizing that although it may not attract high-paying industrial jobs, the community is the entrance to the Santiam playground that includes the Willamette National Forest.

It's also an easy drive to Portland, Albany, Eugene and the Pacific Ocean, which is attractive to new residents and businesses.

The community's public projects growth spurt began in 1994, when a $700,000 flexible manufacturing building was constructed at 4296 Osage Street. Companies can lease the building at well below-market rates until they get on their feet. The current occupant is Tech Edge, which constructs LED lighting and circuit boards and employs up to 20 people.

In 1995, the new fire department at 1099 Long Street was constructed with a $600,000 community development block grant and $500,000 in bonds. Mike Beaver has been the fire chief for nine years and has been a volunteer or on staff since 1985.

"The old fire hall was two stories and had no handicap access," Beaver said. "There were cracks in the walls big enough to throw a cat through. There was sleeping space for only one person. We had just outgrown it."

Today, the nearly 12,000-square-foot building is home base for 65 paid and volunteer staffers who answer some 2,300 calls annually. Beaver said more space would be welcome, as the staff's size has increased and modern equipment is larger.

"This building has been great for us and the community," Beaver said. "There is definitely a lot of pride in the community about this building."

Housed in the basement of City Hall, the Sweet Home Police Department was inundated with several feet of water during the flood of 1996. Talked about for years, the need for new spaced was clearly evident and the community recognized something had to be done. A temporary modular building was sited behind City Hall for five years until a new police services building opened at 1950 Main Street in 2001.

"We didn't have room to move in the old building," Bob Burford, police chief since 1995, said. "There wasn't any place to interview victims."

The 10,000-square-foot $2.7 million facility was paid for with city savings and a $950,000 bond that Burford hopes will be paid off in early 2010. A large community meeting room is used nearly constantly by staff and townspeople, Burford said.

The city's newest addition is a $12 million water treatment plant that replaced a 70-year-old facility. It is being paid for by increased user fees and a $7.5 million low interest loan from the state's clean water revolving loan fund. It is designed to meet community needs for several decades.

But it isn't just the city that has made big improvements to essential public facilities.

At the start of the decade, the Sweet Home School District's maintenance staff was spending much of its time keeping the old Sweet Home High School running, Superintendent Larry Horton said. The main body of the school was built in the 1930s and parts for the antiquated heater boilers were becoming non-existent.

Voters passed an $18.7 million bond in 2001 and a major reconstruction project at the high school got underway the next year. It included a new gymnasium, cafeteria/commons area, business classrooms and a career center.

Linn-Benton Community College has a center located in the high school, and it is used extensively by the students and the community at large, Horton said.

All of the district's elementary schools and junior high also got much-needed repairs.

Again, the community's loggers took the lead in rebuilding the district's condemned sports track and revamping the softball and soccer fields. The high school recently added new tennis courts thanks to funding from the Sweet Home Economic Development Group Inc., and grant money.

"We have a beautiful high school," Horton said. "I'd put it up against any other school around. We are very proud of it."

City leaders hope that the construction of a new medical school in Lebanon will pay big dividends for Sweet Home.

"I believe it will provide many benefits, as did the construction of the Lowe's distribution center," City Manager Martin said. "Our quality of life is second to none. We hope many people associated with the medical school choose to live in Sweet Home. We have a good, safe community - and some of the best recreation in the state is right outside our back door."