New community center is nearly ready to open, parks director says

The opening of the renovated and renamed Franklin P. Norman City-County Community Center is getting closer.

But no date has been set yet, Jeff Post, parks board chairman, said during Wednesday's park board meeting.

"We're shooting for the end of March," Robin McHugh, parks and recreation director, said, adding the exact is still up in the air.

"There are some issues that still need to be worked on and we want to have everything in place when it opens," Post said.

He told the board that the video arcade games had been delivered Tuesday, but they had to be returned.

"They looked like animals had chewed on them," McHugh said.

She told the board that since only one full-time and one part-time person who worked at the community center when it was closed will be returning, the city will need to hire additional people to fully staff the center.

McHugh said that the current plan is to keep the 6 a.m. to 9 p.m., Monday-Friday and the noon to 9 p.m. Sunday schedule and on Saturday increase the hours to be open 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. In the past the community center was open from noon to 9 p.m., and the additional hours will require a second person to staff the facility.

The parks board is tentatively planning to hold an open house when the facility is opened and then about a month later have the grand opening with the ribbon cutting and possibly the dedication of the Franklin Norman plaque in the lobby at the same time.

As part of the grand opening they are planning to invite past park board members who had worked on replacing the community center and those who worked on getting the parks sales tax passed.

"Without those who worked on the tax issue, we would not have this," Post said.

McHugh said that they are busy moving the papers and equipment that had been placed in storage when the facility was closed last summer, some of which have to do with the city's informational cable television channel.

"We hope to get Channel 3 up and running soon," McHugh said.

For parents wondering about signing up for spring and summer activities, McHugh said that they would have the sign-ups for tee ball and coach pitch teams as soon as the community center is open and they will move the start of the Fun With Sports program to mid-April, with sign-ups beginning around April 1.

In addition to the activities that the community center has sponsored in the past she said that she is looking at offering aerobics classes again and possibly yoga and with the second gym people wanting to shoot baskets between 6 and 9 a.m. will be able to use the small gym, while the new gym will be reserved for walkers for those three hours.