As the Emporia Recreation Commission’s Rec Center Steering Committee works towards finished plans and a likely special election early next year, Committee Chair Erren Harter says there will be a lot of opportunities for public input. And that’s by design.
Harter says the committee is planning as many as four two-day workshop sessions between the Lyon County Fair, Aug. 13 specifically, and Thanksgiving — and those will have a unique format. The plan now is to have the project’s external partners, BG Consultants of Emporia and Kahler Slater of Milwaukee for architectural design and Hutton Corporation of Wichita for construction manager at risk items, to meet with the committee during the day to discuss specific matters, followed by public engagement meetings that evening, work to incorporate public input by the external partners later that night and then a debrief session between the partners and the committee the following morning.
Harter also tells KVOE News there will be an interactive website created so people can give and see input, see virtual walkthroughs of different layouts or designs and read regular progress reports.
The current plan is to have everything ready for a special election in late February or early March 2025, and Harter says the Steering Committee is leaning towards a new public recreation building. The Lee Beran Recreation Center at 313 West Fourth, in place since the late 1970s, has been deemed too small to handle current public recreation wants and needs, let alone changing appetites for various sports and activities in the future. Projected construction costs for new or expanded facilities have not been announced. Harter says the sales tax to be requested as the main funding source has not been determined but will likely be anywhere from a quarter-cent to half-cent once it goes on a special ballot.