Charles Oliver
charlesoliver@daltoncitizen.com
DALTON —
The steel structure of the new Dalton Community Center has started to go up, and officials say they are still on target to finish the building by late May or early June 2011.
“The opening date will depend on how far along we are on the outdoor work, such as the parking,” said Dalton Parks and Recreation Director Ronnie Nix. “Hopefully, we can start working on some of that before the building itself is completed. If we can get started by April or so, I don’t see any reason why it couldn’t be completed (open to the public) by September or the first of October.”
The old Dalton Community Center, which was built in 1966, was demolished in November 2009 to make way for the new building.
The new structure, at the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Fredrick Street, is expected to cost $4.383 million. Funding for the center includes $500,000 in federal community development block grant money, about $1 million from the recreation department’s reserve and part of $5.6 million in bonds the city issued earlier this year.
The 50,000-square-foot building will have two full-size basketball courts, compared to one middle school-size gym in the previous building, as well as an indoor walking track, a weight room and a large meeting room that can be divided into smaller rooms if needed.
In addition to the traditional recreation activities, the center will host an office of the federal Women, Infants and Children program. And city officials have said they would like to have a satellite branch of the Dalton-Whitfield Library there as well as programs from the Creative Arts Guild, Dalton State College and local churches and community groups.
“The library and the Creative Arts Guild have said they will definitely be in there,” said Mayor David Pennington. “We don’t know exactly which programs yet. We have a committee that is meeting that will be deciding which programs will be there. We hope to have something definite within the next 90 to 120 days.”
Pennington says these services are needed in a part of the city that is underserved.
“We’ve got a lot of people there who can’t get to the library and can’t get to the health department,” he said.
But city officials say the new community center will also bring in people from around the city and even the county, providing a big economic boost to the neighborhood.
