Officials eye December completion date for community center

By BOB MARTIN
Eagle Times Staff
NEWPORT, N.H. — While it has been in the works for more than three decades, the community center in Newport is coming into form structurally, with officials eying a December completion date.

On Monday afternoon, Newport Recreation Director PJ Lovely Jr. led a tour through the 19,500-square-foot building currently under construction on Meadow Road. A ribbon cutting date hasn’t been set, but the town is looking at a goal for the first week of December being finished. This comes less than a year after ground was broken on the project. The completion date is subject to change due to weather, but he said there should be programs and activities going on by the start of the new year.

“This started on the Master Plan and then every four or five years we have committees bring up ideas and plans,” said Lovely. “It has changed a lot over the years, but certainly, we kept being persistent. We had some people who found some funding for us, and that was huge. So, it is all paid for. No tax money to build this facility, which is incredible. We’ll be able to offer a lot of great new things for the citizens. It’s a win.”

Lovely explained public space is of utmost importance. There were surveys done with members of the community polled over the years. He said the community needs have changed over the years, as one point spinning class was huge but isn’t as popular these days. However, the public space that goes with it is popular and needed.

“We have that big community room so we can fill that niche, whatever it is going to be,” Lovely said. “The gymnasium, we definitely didn’t want to skimp. We wanted a place where a lot of people can go.”

The gymnasium can actually fit the current recreation center inside it. The wide-open space will have 500 seats and will host huge activities for people of all ages. It can also serve as an emergency operations center and be a spot for birthday parties and other programs. The center will have a small fitness room, a storage area and an office for the director.

“It is for little kids all the way to senior citizens,” Lovely said. “We’ll house voting, pickleball leagues, adult basketball nights, a big volleyball program that comes in. We’ll continue to do our after-school program for kids for no charge. We’ll have the kids come in after school for a few hours so they can recreate positively.”

A major aspect was having a spot for programs. The current recreation center is in an 8,000 square-foot armory building that was created in 1937, and there simply wasn’t enough room for the programs wanted. This will allow for up to five different programs at once, with the gymnasium set up with a divider allowing for multiple activities.

There will be a multi-purpose room with ping pong tables and pool tables, and couches. It is an open area to give plenty of space for children to play.

The community center will also have a concession stand that will be open both inside and outside for those attending sporting events. There will be five team rooms and 11 bathrooms in the complex, compared to only one bathroom in the current center. One bathroom will have a shower, as well.

“It’s a big improvement for all members of the community,” Lovely said.

Finance Director Paul Brown has been working for the town since 1992 in various capacities, and the community center was being discussed back then, as well. He said it is a great feeling to see this all come to fruition, explaining that at least five committees worked on the development and planning over the years.

Funding for the $9 million community center is all set, with the town recently receiving a USDA grant to take care of the final portion of the construction cost. However, Lovely said they are always accepting donations for internal aspects.

“A lot of work went into it with different ideas,” Brown said. “The funding finally became available. We have taken it to town meeting a few times and we were looking for bond funding, which would have fallen back on the taxpayers. This really exploded when we had a large donor for $1.5 million, and then we got the USDA funding for about $5 million and state funds worth a million. That really put us over the top; the fact we could get it paid for without taxpayer dollars.”

Town Manager Kyle Harris said this is a facility with so many different opportunities.

“It is not just recreation, but also community activities,” Harris said. “We are building a real community complex down here. We have a dog park across the street and a community garden that a group of volunteers put in last Saturday. I think that’s going to be really beneficial to become a community hub. And you’re only a block-and-a-half from Main Street. We can have events take place on Main Street that also incorporates this area. I think being that central hub is really good.”

When driving down Meadow Road, it is clear that big things are happening with the construction vehicles hard at work creating what will be an adjacent baseball field. Harris said that progress is being made each day in and around the building.

“It is hard to think that when I came up here for my interview in December we did a tour around town, and they had just broken ground,” Harris said. “There were concrete blocks on the ground, and even when I started here in February, it was just a wall. Here we are less than five months later, and we’re standing in a building. You can visualize the gymnasium and where people will play basketball. You can see where people will be voting in a couple years. You can really feel the space that is built from the ground up in literally a year.”