Centre renovations nearing completion

• New front desk

Stacy Olson sits at the new front desk of the newly-renovated reception area in The Centre. The renovations on The Centre began on March 23 and are now beginning to wrap-up.
• Pool slide

Darian Blattner, executive director of The Centre, stands near the kiddie water slide that will be put into The Centre’s pool during the annual pool closure at the end of August. The slide was stored in the gymnasium for a while, the floor of which is being resurfaced as a part of renovations.

Talk about it

After months of construction, renovations at The Centre are wrapping up, said Centre Executive Director Darian Blattner.

“Our goal to have everything complete is the day after Labor Day,” said Blattner.

Blattner said the actual building of new rooms is finished, but the rooms have to be furnished and finished inside before they will be fully usable.

However, Blattner also said some of the new rooms and newly-renovated areas are already in use, such as the front desk. The reception area was renovated, complete with tile and a new desk. Near the reception area, the Kids Kove childcare rooms have also been updated and one is already in use.

One room Blattner said he was especially excited about is a newly added-on room that will be open to the community for a variety of uses.

“We’ll have the ability to do teen events,” Blattner said. “We have X-box and Wii and that kind of stuff.”

Blattner said the room, when it is fully furnished, will have two large, flat-screen TVs, and partitions will offer the ability to divide the room into two or three smaller rooms, or keep it as one large room.

“If a company comes and wants to do a meeting off site, they could do it and have all the technology they need,” Blattner said. He said that particular room is nearly finished.

Blattner said The Centre renovations will benefit users, of all ages.

The Centre will also be adding a green, turtle-shaped kiddie slide to the swimming pool, in an effort to give more opportunities to very young children.

“If you’re 1, you have to go down the big water slide with mom or dad,” said Blattner. “If you’re 1, when this is in, it’s all yours.”

The kiddie slide will go into the pool during the annual pool closure, which will start Aug. 27.

All renovations should be complete by Sept. 4, Blattner said, and there will be an open house on Sept. 22 for community members to come and see the expansion.

“Our hope is on the 22nd we get a lot of people, both members and community folks,” Blattner said, “to come in and have some food, a little bit of fun and see what we’ve done with the facility.”

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