Ark Valley News - Plans for rec center near completion

Crews sandblast the bottom of the swimming pool in Lions Park Jan. 30. The pool and deck will receive a nearly $900,000 renovation.

Plans for rec center near completion
By Chris Strunk
Last Updated: February 02, 2023

More than two-years after voters approved a sales tax to help pay for it, the new Valley Center Aquatics and Fitness Center came into clearer focus last week as architects released updated drawings of what the facility would look like and what it may contain.

Also becoming clearer is where it will be located.

"We want to keep this train moving forward on the track," City Administrator Brent Clark said during a pool and recreation center steering committee meeting Jan. 25 at City Hall.

The project's architect, SJCF of Wichita, said revisions to the project are being made daily.

The drawings given to the committee last week showed the facility on property just north of Valley Center Middle School at 800 N. Meridian.

The city had originally proposed building the recreation center in Lions Park, next to the outdoor swimming pool.

Since then, however, the former farmland between the middle school and 93rd North was bought by a developer, which opened up a roughly 15-acre space for the rec center. City officials said the new location would have room for future expansion.

The building would sit an angle with a large wall of windows pointing toward the street and nearby parking lot.

The Meridian entrance to the facility would be directly across from Southwind.

According to the latest drawings, the facility would include a gymnasium with a full basketball court as well as striping for at least three pickleball courts and possibly four. A large open-concept fitness room would be surrounded by a walking track.

The connected aquatics facility would include a pool large enough for six swimming lanes for competitions and practices as well as a smaller zero-entry shallow pool connected on one end to the large pool.

Other features in the design included a studio, locker rooms, a laundry room, a child center and staff offices.

Blake Peniston, director of the recreation commission, said a 2020 survey showed that a walking track and easy access to a temperature-controlled pool were important to senior citizens.

To finalize the facility's features, SJCF put together a survey to ask the community if there were possible items missing from the project.

The survey, which is available online, asks a dozen questions.

One question asks the survey taker to rank features — indoor pool, track, gym, fitness machines, multi-purpose studio and child center — by how often they would be used.

The survey asks whether there were amenities that should be added or layout changes that should be made.

It also tries to gauge the survey taker's interest in buying a membership or switching memberships from other gyms.

"I think it will give us a good idea if we're off base with something," said Terry Wiggers with SJCF.

The survey will be online through Feb. 3.

The design and preconstruction process could take another couple of months, officials said. They hope to start construction in late spring, and the facility may take more than a year to build.

While the original estimate for the projects, including the renovation of the outdoor swimming pool in Lions Park, was $10.5 million, the final cost has not been determined.

Late last year, Clark said it would be "north of" the original estimate.

Meanwhile, crews began a nearly $900,000 project to renovate and improve the outdoor swimming pool and facility in Lions Park.

The work will include repairs to the basin and decking, new lights and fencing as well as the expansion of the deck and shade structures. The city also will expand the pool's parking lot entrance and exit, build more sidewalks, update fixtures inside the bathhouse and have murals painted on the bathhouse walls.

City officials said the pool will be finished this spring.

Also this spring, the rec commission will be turning the basketball court in Lions Park into two permanent pickleball courts.