Last-ditch efforts by county council members and state delegates to save funding for the renovation of a long-vacant Silver Spring auditorium aim to reverse County Executive Isiah Leggett's decision not to fund the project in this year's capital budget.

Last month, Leggett did not recommend funding for the Old Blair Auditorium in the Capital Improvements Program for 2011-2016, leaving the facility once marked for renovation indefinitely dormant and deteriorating on the campus of Silver Spring International Middle and Sligo Creek Elementary schools.

Two Montgomery County Council members expressed interest in amending the CIP to include funding for the building's renovation at a public hearing last week. And state delegates introduced a bill in the Maryland General Assembly on Tuesday that would extend the availability of a $600,000 state bond bill for the project through 2012. The current bond bill, which has been extended once before, is set to expire this year if matching funds are not provided by the county.

Extending the bond bill or overturning Leggett's decision are likely the only two ways the building could still be renovated. It has been dormant since 1999.

"I find it very appalling when I look at the photographs [of the building] that we've let a county asset turn into garbage," Councilwoman Valerie Ervin (D-Dist. 5) of Silver Spring, who sponsored a feasibility study and community meetings last summer to design the renovated auditorium, said last week at a public hearing on the 2011-2016 CIP. "I'm imploring my colleagues on the council to put this in the CIP."

The facility would be renovated into a 750- to 800-seat, two-floor auditorium with four classrooms in the rear of the facility and cost up to $8 million depending on the design, a price tag too steep given the county's economic climate, Leggett has said. Only Ervin and Councilman George Leventhal spoke on the project, with Leventhal showing more tempered support.

"Having an unmaintained space in the middle of two schools is a long-term structural problem," said Leventhal (D-At large) of Takoma Park at the CIP public hearing.

But Leventhal wants more consideration given to the traffic and parking implications of adding a performance space along Wayne Avenue and how the Purple Line stop proposed at Wayne and Dale Drive could affect the future of the project.

The auditorium would be available to students of Silver Spring International and Sligo Creek, as well as county arts and theater groups who could rent out the space.

"The goal is simple: to take something that already existed and get it back into operation and make it an asset for our community," said Stuart Moore, president of Old Blair Auditorium Inc.

The value of the project was also discussed in Annapolis on Tuesday before the Maryland House Appropriations Committee, which approves or disapproves the state's bond bills. The 26-member committee will now decide whether to include the bond bill, House Bill 718, in a larger bill containing amended or extended versions of bonds that have been previously approved.

That decision could come this spring when the state finalizes its capital budget, according to an analyst with the Maryland Department of Legislative Services. The county council will review the recommended CIP more closely in upcoming workshops before finalizing the capital budget this spring.

The appropriations committee includes Del. Heather R. Mizeur (D-Dist. 20) of Takoma Park, a co-sponsor of the bill with Del. Sheila Hixson (D-Dist. 20) of Silver Spring.