Community center design coming soon
PLR Director gives update on river bottom trails
A potential design plan for a new community center combining Sterling Recreation Center and Logan County Heritage is set to be released in the coming weeks. Sterling Parks, Library and Recreation Director Wade Gandee shared that update with the PLR Board at a regular meeting Monday.
Gandee told the full board including two new members, Denise Rogers Piel and Paul Garcia, that the University of Colorado students who are developing the concept design recently met with the group spearheading the project. They shared some preliminary plans and the group looked at them and gave their suggestions for additions. The students are now making corrections and are expected to release the proposed concept design for public input by the end of March.
In looking at the design, there was discussion about what it would look like bringing both staffs together, with the idea that one entity should control the new center, Gandee said. They also talked about money and looking at both entities’ budgets decided that an 80/20 split, with the city covering 80 percent of the cost for construction of the building and operational costs afterward, with be fair. One of the county commissioners was in attendance at that meeting and planned to bring that information to his fellow commissioners.
“We see them coming on as another superintendent basically, they’ll fall under PLR and we talked about possibly them having a commissioner on this board and they’d also have to keep a Council on Aging and put a commissioner on that group so they would have input still that direction,” he said.
Gandee warned there have been some complaints regarding his suggestion not to have an outdoor pool anymore and instead have water slides on the inside of the building so that they can be utilized year-round instead of just a couple of months a year. He has told those people, this is probably a five to ten-year-down-the-road project and the outdoor pool is already 20 years old, meaning it will need to be replaced by the time this project gets going.
The way the indoor pool would be set up and the fact that there
isn’t an outdoor pool would help address the struggles they’ve had trying to find enough lifeguards because they wouldn’t need to hire as many.
“We wouldn’t be looking at deep water in the new pool, it would be lazy rivers and things like that, so we wouldn’t have to train lifeguards for that,” Gandee said, sharing that the group spearheading the project saw another complex where one of the walls opened up and there could be a splash pad outside the pool, “so it would still feel like an outdoor pool.”
In other business, Gandee reported the city is still working on cutting new trails on the South Platte River bottom and just recently found out there is a “huge encampment” made out of downed logs that they will be working with the police and fire department to take care of. He is unsure if his crews can get equipment to the encampment to take it down, if not the fire department might need to do a controlled burn.
It was also reported that trails have been mowed behind the old dog pound off of Right of Way Road, but due to requirements of the new pipeline that went through there, the area had to be reseeded. It must be established within a year, so the public is asked to stay out of that northern area for now.
Additionally, the PLR Department is gearing up for Movies in the Park, on Tuesdays in June, with one movie possibly held at the Logan County Courthouse this year, and Fishing is Fun on Saturday, June 1, at Kiwanis Pond.
During superintendent updates, Overland Trail Museum Curator Kay Rich shared that they will be getting a 1920 Model-t truck donated by the Meisner family. She mentioned a need to look at adding some kind of transportation building in the future.
Rich also noted that visitation is back up to PRE-COVID numbers and they are working on preserving and framing an 11.5-foot 1876 flag and have a lot of people contacting the museum wanting to help. Plus, they are working on plans for the Heritage Festival and the O’connell House’s new rose garden.
Library Superintendent Sandy Vandusen reported that Bunny Hop will be Saturday, from 2 to 4 p.m. with a visit from the Easter Bunny and they are planning several special activities for National Library Week, April 7-13, including a Family Movie Day.
During his report, Recreation Superintendent Monty Waite introduced the Rec Center’s new Aquatic Supervisor, Barb Kloberdanz, who is working on hiring lifeguards and getting the outdoor pool ready for the summer.
He also reported session seven of swim lessons starts next week, youth softball registration is underway, adult volleyball has started and registration is underway for spring pickleball which includes a Tuesday evening and Sunday afternoon doubles league.
Parks, Cemetery and Forestry Superintendent Jamie Ulrich reported the new lights at Mason Field should be in and finished by the first or second week of April and the majority of trees have been lifted in the parks for mowing season, with six dead trees removed from Columbine Park and four from Propst Park. New trees are put in all the time and recent trees that were planted have been able to survive but Ulrich warned he has a bad feeling regarding trees this year because “nothing ever went totally dormant” because it never got that cold and he’s sent out a water tank four times because there was such little moisture.
The city’s annual Arbor Day celebration will be April 26 at the museum.
Ulrich also reported the panels have been replaced on the walkway going to the dock at Kiwanis Pond, they’ve done some TLC to the horseshoe pits at Pioneer Park and they’re in the process of removing the rotted boards from the skating rinks at Tolla Brown Skate Park and will look at resurfacing it, maybe going in a different direction with some basketball hoops.