Meeting held to discuss community center options

On Monday, September 23 at the fair building, members of the community representing various boards and districts gathered to discuss the possibility of pursuing funding for the construction of a potential community center. Leading the discussions were Recreation District Director Brian Parker, Hot Springs County Commissioner Phil Scheel and his wife Shurie. They were also assisted by Kristin Fong from the Wyoming Business Council.

Shurie Scheel said that the meeting’s purpose was “to begin a conversation” and help “Thermopolis to get better”...and that “everyone here has goodwill.”

For the following hour or more, various members of the community gave their thoughts, ideas, and concerns. Members of different groups or local government entities added to the conversation. They include, but were not limited to, the Fair Board, the Senior Center, the Discovery Board, the Town of Thermopolis, Hot Springs County Commissioners, Travel & Tourism, the Wrestling Club, the Chamber of Commerce, the Jui Jitsu Club, the Shooting Sports Club, the PickleBall Club, Thrive for Economic Development and others. The organizers of the meeting invited everyone in the community to attend the meeting.

Recreation Director Brian Parker explained their thoughts on a new community center. He said, “I’m here on behalf of the recreation district to express our wants and our needs that would involve this community center. As a rec district, we’ve been exploring the option of creating a new rec center for a while now. There’s been some hiccups along the way. A lot has to go into it. It’s been a slow process, but something that we’re very eager to get done and something we’re very enthusiastic about seeing here in Thermopolis. We see it being vital to the community, gym space, recreational opportunities for youth and adults, we do use the school’s facilities a ton. It limits what we can bring, as far as, you know, tournaments, games, things like that into the town.” 

Parker continued and said, “We see there being an economic improvement if we were able to build a rec center as part of this community center. Those are our main things, focus on having open space, having more designated space for each sport and activity that way we can further support not only rec district stuff, but also school districts, activities, some of our AAU, club and travel teams as well. We strain the facility’s use as much as we can here in town, and like I said, we use the school district quite a bit. If we had a rec center that allowed us more gym space, more activity space in general, we see us being able to bring in tournaments, events, other economic building opportunities for if you got here in Thermopolis.”

Parker added, “We’ve explored a bunch of different financial options as far as how we’re going to fund this. Nearly through grants, looking at some promising ones, the Daniels fund, the Wyoming Community Foundation, as well as the USDA, they all seem to have promising grants that would align with us. The problem that we see with a lot of those is they’re not recreation specific. By joining with certain entities and coming together and being part of this community center, we open ourselves up for a lot more funding opportunities. We want to be diverse with this, and obviously we can help benefit other people in town outside of maybe what the rec district supports. That’s a plus two. We can combine efforts here… A lot of these funding opportunities involve a well-rounded form of activities. We’re just looking at who else we can partner with, and how that’s going to work.”

During more than an hour’s worth of discussion, the organizers wrote down on large sheets of paper for participants to see several lists of ideas or needs or wants regarding the potential community center.

For its Activities, Options, and Facility Needs, they wrote: More activities at a time; More spectator space; A safe place; Pickleball; Much more indoor space in the winter; At least two basketball courts (build for the future, an auxiliary gym); Shooting sports (archery, etc); A fundraising space; Activities for non-sporty kids (pool, billiards, roller skating, arts & crafts); Classroom space; After-School activities/care; Meeting space, tables, chairs, modular.; CWC classroom space.

An additional Facility Needs list wrote: Wedding rental space; Convention space; Partnership between seniors and kiddos (teach home ec); Discover Center partnership (grants available? Folk classes, CWC classes, Visitor Center, State Park); Birthday party rentals, Halloween parties, youth lessons, soccer; Open gym time; and Lots of parking.

Regarding ideas of what should we know, they wrote: EPA Community Change Grant; WYGAP grants portal; the facility should include inter and outdoor space; Consider dilapidated Shoshoni Street buildings; Study lodging needs as related to increased tournaments and travel needs; Build for the future; Continue partnership with the school; We need more short term RV parking; Research other existing community centers; Use available Lights On funding (limited on personnel); Need an overall fairgrounds redesign & plan; Senior Center update-renovation plus space available (can’t accommodate pickleball; Consider the State Park Master Plan; Create a membership fee structure.

Regarding questions to ask: Where will the community center be located? It needs to be walkable, near school, fair week proximity; Who will run it? (maintenance care, pay, staff, etc.); Do we have enough lodging space to accommodate events? (RV parks or us Worland?) How big will the building be? (Look at other centers for reference); Do we keep the old facilities? How can we use the Senior Center’s second half of the building? Is the community center a need or a want? What about insurance and liability? What are the current building costs? (Fair building and armory); What do we do about parking for 300 people?

The meeting concluded with Shurie Scheel saying “There seems to be enough interest in the community”. She then invited the meeting’s participants and asked if they wanted to be more involved to leave their contact information for potential serving on a steering community and to volunteer their time. The conversation will continue and they will continue exploring the possibility of funding a community center.