After a year of being on hold, efforts for the construction of a new Emporia Recreation Center could resume soon.
That will be entirely dependent on decisions made by the rec center steering committee when they convene for their next meeting on January 20th, according to Emporia Recreation Commission Director Amanda Gutierrez during a recent interview on KVOE’s Talk of Emporia. As you may recall, efforts were moving along at full steam on the development of a new center back in 2024 before the closure of Tyson led the committee to halt the progress in December of that year.
At the time of those discussions, the project was estimated at around $53 million; however, those plans also included renovations to the DeBauge Family Soccer Complex, a project that is currently moving along as a separate endeavor.
Should the committee decide to move forward with planning and development later this month, Gutierrez says everything could be on the table, including the potential scale of the project. Space issues within the current Lee Beran Recreation continue to be a mounting problem, and were the core issue that led to discussions on the creation of a new facility.
While the issues of space have not been resolved by any means, Gutierrez says potential re-purposing some space inside the current center in conjunction with a new center, could mean a scaled-down version of the proposed new facility, should the ERC keep Lee Beran operational.
Another item that could be reconsidered as well is the potential location of a new facility, which was originally set to be located at Champions Landing.
The 2024 pause on planning came just a few months before the community was set to vote on a half-cent sales tax question that, if approved, would have served as the project’s main funding source. Gutierrez stated Tuesday that if the committee decides to move forward, there is a possibility they could get the question on the November ballot; however, that is far from set in stone at this time.
The committee meeting on January 20th will take place at 3:30 pm inside conference room 1AB at White Auditorium.
