“Home for the recreation programming our department has provided for this community for decades and decades and decades.”
City manager Keith Van Beek says Holland needs a recreation center because local schools are no longer able to rent or loan the city space to host their activities.
“Without this home that we are building for our recreation program we would get to the point where we would have to cut the programming we provide for the community because we wouldn’t have space to do it in.”
The recreation center is planned on city owned land at Smallenburg Park along Fairbanks Avenue. Assistant city manager Matt Van Dyken says it means removing a playground, pavilion and some trees but not the skate park.
“One of the questions we often get asked is what’s going to happen to the skate park. It’s staying right where it is. It can be open all during the construction process.
To pay for the recreation center the city already has a five-million-dollar donation and Mayor Nathan Bocks says they will borrow 22 million dollars by selling bonds.
“We need to borrow some money in order to be able to build this.”
Assistant city manager Van Dyken says site preparation could begin this month.
“It’s exciting for us to get to the point where we might actually be getting heavy machinery out there and getting the site prepped.”
