Submitted Illustration The 35,000-square-foot center is planned to be built under an agreement with the new Boys & Girls Club at Russell Way and Northridge Drive. The club could use the center's gym under the agreement, and the center could use rooms in the 22,000-square-foot club.
By Dave Frank
Appeal Staff Writer
The Carson City Parks and Recreation Department is moving forward with plans for a new recreation center the department says residents need and have demanded.
The 35,000-square-foot center is planned to be built under an agreement with the new Boys & Girls Club at Russell Way and Northridge Drive. The club could use the center's gym under the agreement, and the center could use rooms in the 22,000-square-foot club.
The center would include a gym, fitness room, fields and possibly a climbing wall, skate park and outdoor water play area. The club also could add tennis courts that the center could use.
Construction on the center is scheduled to start next year and cost about $9 million. The project was requested in the 1996 Quality of Life ballot initiative and will be paid for by the sales tax passed with that vote.
Under the agreement, the city also would get the recreation center land on the 11-acre site for free.
Suggestions to partner with the club go back to 1996, but recent talks started last year. The city had tried to partner with Western Nevada College, but the Legislature didn't approve money for that plan.
The board of supervisors will vote on the plan and an agreement between the parks department and the club March 6.
Parks Director Roger Moellendorf said the new center will give the department space to expand programs and provide a good place for families.
"The biggest reason we can't expand programs now is a dearth of facilities," he said.
Though city finances are tight, construction could be cheap because companies are looking for work, Moellendorf said.
The cost of running the center also would be cheap with most of the $900,000 a year in operations being covered by fees and rentals.
This center will be able to do this, said Ken Ballard of Colorado-based Ballad King Associates, because the building is small and compact and won't have many employees.
Ballard's company developed the preliminary financial plan for the center.
The new center is in a good location in a high-density area, said Supervisor Pete Livermore, and something the city has needed for a long time. He said the gym facilities the city has now were built in a time when the population was less than half of what it is now.
• Contact reporter Dave Frank at dfrank@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1212.