Residents Tour Bentonville Recreation Center At Celebration

STAFF PHOTO BEN GOFF • @NWABenGoff Layne Moore, recreation specialist with Bentonville Parks & Recreation, describes the amenities Friday that will be featured in the aquatic center while leading a tour of the Bentonville Community Recreation Center. The tours were given during a topping out celebration for the facility under construction in Bentonville.
STAFF PHOTO BEN GOFF • @NWABenGoff Layne Moore, recreation specialist with Bentonville Parks & Recreation, describes the amenities Friday that will be featured in the aquatic center while leading a tour of the Bentonville Community Recreation Center. The tours were given during a topping out celebration for the facility under construction in Bentonville.

BENTONVILLE -- Residents got to see progress being made on the Bentonville Community Recreation Center up close during a topping out celebration Friday.

Parks and Recreation staff led small groups on tours through the facility's construction. The tour highlighted sections of the 82,000-square-foot building including its multipurpose rooms, lounge, child watch area, track, gym, pool area, locker rooms and fitness area.

At A Glance

Recreation Center

The Bentonville Community Recreation Center is scheduled to be complete in 2015. Parks and Recreation officials are working out membership and rental costs. Rates are expected to go before City Council in August, said David Wright, Parks and Recreation director.

Source: Staff Report

Attendees also got to sign the last beam before it was installed. The topping out celebration marks a milestone in the construction process as it signified the building is ready for the last beam to be put in place.

Around 250 to 300 people attended the celebration, estimated David Wright, parks and recreation.

That was slightly more than the number who came to the groundbreaking in November, he said.

"I was thrilled about the number of people who showed up," Wright said. "There's a lot of excitement about this."

Courtney Schaefer and her three children, ages 5, 7 and 9, took a tour. Schaefer is on the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board.

"I've seen plans and everything, but I haven't seen it," she said of her first time being to the site. "It was exciting to see the progress that's been made."

Schaefer said she's most looks forward to the aquatics the center will have.

There will be a zero-depth entry pool that will include water slides, an adventure river, a water playground and lap swim. A 25-yard competition pool will be next to it. It will be used to host meets for the Bentonville high schools and NWA Sharks.

Schaefer was a diver in college and said she's glad to see the city have aquatic amenities for competition purposes.

Residents Meg Rosales and Charlene Hawthorn were impressed by what they saw after they toured the building.

Rosales said all but one amenity residents asked for in the early planning process will be included in the building. Project officials have done a great job at listening to what people want and being good stewards of the money available for the project, she said.

"It speaks well of a community to have something like this," Rosales said.

The one amenity residents asked for but won't get is an outdoor swimming pool, and that's because the city already has an outdoor public pool, Wright said.

The first conceptual design had the building cost at an estimated at $25 million, which was out of the city's price range, Wright said. Through value engineering, officials were able to get the price within budget at $16.1 million.

"We never considered removing amenities," Wright said.

With the last beam in place, the construction crew will focus on finishing the roof over the pool then move to the interior, said Pat Carroll, Crossland Construction project manager.

"Walls will start being erected. Rooms will be defined. Windows will start going in," he said.

Exterior brick will start to be laid within the next two or three weeks.

"(Now) you can see where things are going to go," Carroll said. "In another month, you'll start seeing more definition."

NW News on 07/19/2014

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