The Willamina School Board reversed course in dramatic fashion at a special meeting Wednesday night, voting 4-0 to approve a staff- and community-sponsored building project it had rejected 3-2 at the conclusion of a four-hour regular meeting Monday night.

It did so in the face of a firestorm of opposition from project proponents, who were caught off guard by Monday's board action. That gives the project - which calls for construction of a 7,200-square-foot multi-purpose building without any infusion of tax dollars - renewed life.

But Craig Johnson, who supported the project the first time around, still didn't leave the meeting a happy board member. He felt there was no excuse for the initial rejection.

In the Monday showdown, Johnson was joined by Board Chair Dan Heidt in supporting the project. But they were outvoted by Walt Mendenhall, David Buswell and Loren Wasson.

Wasson missed Wednesday's reconsideration. Mendenhall and Buswell switched sides to produce the unanimous outcome.

Mendenhall led off Wednesday's hastily called special meeting by reading a prepared statement.

He said it was unfortunate that so many audience members who attended Monday's meeting could not or would not understand that the entire board actually favored the building project concept as proposed. As he portrayed it, their concern was limited to financing, which they felt had not been sufficiently explained.

Mendenhall said some board members, including him, needed more time to consider the implications of giving the project the district's official stamp of approval. He said the meeting had proven so long and contentious, and the hour was so late, he wasn't thinking clearly.

He said it's generally better to postpone voting on an issue rather than make a hasty decision, especially if there are questions in board members' minds. He said audience pressure does little to promote a well-thought-out decision.

He said he voted no as a consequence, even though he favored the project, and thus the motion to approve it.

"The mistake I made was not calling for a recess to clear our heads and to cut off public comment at the required 30 minutes," Mendenhall said. "I sincerely feel the vote, and whole tenor of the meeting, would have been different if those two things had occurred."

Upon getting the opportunity rethink after the four-hour meeting adjourned, and to speak with Buswell and Superintendent Mark Jeffery, he decided he needed to change his vote to keep things from imploding, he said. Thus the scheduling of the Wednesday reconsideration session.

Jeffery confirmed that he had spoken with Mendenhall and Buswell afterward. He said he didn't suggest they reverse their votes, but he did encourage them to confer with Heidt in his capacity as board chair.

After Mendenhall finished reading his prepared statement, Executive Secretary Deb Eisele was asked to read the motion the board had voted down Monday night. Mendenhall then offered the same motion and got a second.

Board discussion ensued, and it quickly turned rancorous.

Johnson said he couldn't trust anything Mendenhall and Buswell had to say on the issue, because their actions had made a mockery of the process. He said the sequence of events had made members of the board look like a bunch of "dumb-dumbs."

Wasson left Monday night's meeting immediately after the vote, leaving Mendenhall and Buswell to face angry and vocal members of the audience.

"If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen," Johnson told Mendenhall. "It was cut and dried what the motion was. You couldn't make a decision until after the meeting?"

Mendenhall responded by saying once he got the time to reflect on his no vote, he understood that he was doing the district a disservice. He said he asked Heidt to call a special meeting to reverse the vote, and the board chair agreed to do so.

Buswell said his thought process had evolved along the same lines.

He said, "I saw the way that meeting imploded, and thought, 'This isn't getting us anywhere. It's not worth fighting over.' Things looked differently when our heads were clear."

Mendenhall, Buswell and Wasson all three took shots from the audience during the meeting, once their reservations become apparent. And Mendenhall and Buswell continued to serve as targets of audience ire after Wasson departed.

Buswell made it clear Wednesday that he didn't appreciate the "character assassinations."

Unlike Monday night, when testimony in support was heavy, only one supporter spoke Wednesday night.

Former board member Marianne Eichler said she attended a recent auction in support of the project. She said she was impressed, encouraged and inspired by the event.

The plan calls for erection of a 7,200-square-foot metal-sided structure incorporating a common area and weight room. Supporters said it would be equipped to host conditioning, physical education and weight training classes on both the elementary and high school levels, thus serving 410 students a day,

They said baseball, softball, track and wrestling practices could be held there. They said it could also host youth volleyball and wrestling programs, and be put to a wide variety of community uses.

There are two proposed sites. Supporters determined the cost of constructing the building on the preferred site to be $335,000.

Supporters have earmarked $112,000 from sale of the Tina Miller Teen Center building to the project. Another $78,000 is currently available, leaving another $145,000 to raise.

The initial board concern revolved around the large remainder, as one of the big selling points has been getting the building put up without any infusion of tax dollars.