The new Sim Scott Recreation Center, which will replace the structure destroyed by the February tornado in 2019, is expected to reach completion by the end of October, Columbus Parks Director Greg Lewis said.
The 9,000-square-foot building, which will include a large room for activities, two classrooms and a senior center, will integrate the old community center and the senior center into one. The senior center will take up roughly 1,700 square feet of the space on the west end of the building, which will include a large room, a kitchen and pantry area and a unisex restroom, said Darrell Winters, senior project manager for J5 GBL, which is handling construction.
A new pavilion has been built to replace the old one destroyed by the tornado, and the construction crew is working on the sidewalks and the playground while finishing up the interior construction, Lewis said. Interior walls have been painted, Winters said, and the air-conditioning system and the lighting will be installed over the next few weeks. The crew will then install the ceiling, cabinets, interior doors and other equipment, and the concrete floor will be stained toward the end of the project, he said.
The project was originally estimated to cost roughly $900,000, 87.5 percent of which would come from the city’s insurance money and funding from the federal and state emergency management agencies, according to previous Dispatch reporting. Winters said the construction has cost about $400,000 so far, but the final cost may rise as the construction nears the end.
Before the tornado struck Columbus, the senior center at Sim Scott Park had roughly 16 participants per day who played games, made quilts and engaged in other activities from 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Monday through Friday, Lewis said. But due to the pandemic, no senior programs will be hosted at the building yet, he told The Dispatch.
However, Lewis said he has been in touch with past senior participants to keep them updated on the senior program. Rental space will then be available on weekends, he said, and afterschool and summer programs can also be held there.
“We do phone calls and visitations, stuff like that, just to let them know that we are coming back,” Lewis said.
Mayor Robert Smith told The Dispatch Monday afternoon he is happy the construction is nearing the end. However, he said, the center will remain closed during the pandemic because event attendees will likely not follow safety measures at the community center, and the city doesn’t have enough manpower to enforce it.
“If you rent it out to individuals and you tell them, ‘Well, you can’t have more than, say, 100 people in there,’ and they’ve got to social distance in there,” he said, “there is nobody to regulate it to make sure they are following the guidelines. … They know that we are not coming out and check. We don’t have enough police to go and check each facility that’s rented out.”
Smith said the city will follow instructions from Gov. Tate Reeves as to when to reopen the community centers. Once Reeves allows for the facilities to be open at full capacity, he said, Sim Scott can be reopened for public use.
“I wouldn’t feel comfortable right now to open them up until we get clear (instructions) from the governor saying that we can open them up to full capacity or X amount in there,” he said.
Yue Stella Yu was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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