Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
MEGAN SCOTTIt will take about a year to build Dunedin's $2.8-million Stirling Recreation Center.
DUNEDIN - Construction on the city's new and long-awaited recreation center is set to begin next month.
The Stirling Recreation Center has been a long time coming, said Harry Gross, Dunedin's director of leisure services.
The old center was built in 1980 when about 4,000 people used the center annually. Today, more than 16,000 residents a year use the center regularly, he said.
City commissioners recently awarded a $2.8-million construction contract for the center to a local company, Bandes Construction Co. Work on the 18,725-square-foot center will start sometime next month and should be completed in about a year.
It's not the first publicly-funded project for the Dunedin company. Bandes also built the Dunedin Fine Arts Center, the fire station on Belcher Road and the recreation center in Tarpon Springs.
"I am so happy to get that started," Commissioner Deborah Kynes said. "That was so badly needed."
There are structural problems with the old center. The clay on which it stands has shifted, creating cracks. Ceiling tiles inside the gameroom have collapsed and kitchen cabinets have separated from the wall and ceiling.
"We have a lot of youth programs," Gross said. "We have several adult programs, adult basketball, indoor and outdoor volleyball. You can't do a lot of those programs at the same time because of the limited space."
The new Stirling Recreation Center will be built almost immediately east of the existing 8,000-square-foot building. The new center will have a hardwood floor gym, three classrooms, a teen room, restrooms, two staff offices, a kitchen and storage space.
A lighted basketball court and a playground or picnic area will be located outside. The skate park will remain in the same location.
Dunedin plans to finance the new recreation center through a 10-year bank loan using Penny for Pinellas funds. City officials are scheduled to vote on the financing at an Oct. 16 commission meeting.
Once the new center is finished, the old one will be demolished and turned into a parking lot.
"It was past time," Commissioner Bob Hackworth said.