Fairfax OKs community center funds
By James Cullum
On Tuesday evening, the Fairfax City Council approved using $600,000 out of $5 million in donated funds for the engineering and design of a master plan for a community center.
Last year, longtime resident Geraldine Sherwood donated the $5 million to the city with the stipulation that the long-awaited community center be built in Van Dyck Park, or else the money would have to be returned to her family. However, some city leaders are not convinced that the park is the best location.
The agreement also states that construction will have to begin by the end of this year and that the 32,000-square-foot building be mostly complete by November 2010, two years after the money was turned over to the city.
The penalty for falling out of compliance with the Sherwood family? No money, no community center.
For more than a decade, city residents had used the John C. Wood building as a de facto community center until it was demolished last December. City staff determined it was not feasible to use that empty site for the new facility.
Three building options for construction have been presented by city staff, who advocate building the least expensive of the options, a $5.4 million structure that can be added on to when additional funds are available.
The exact location of where the new community center will be is still to be determined. If it is built, the building would be the first of its kind in the history of the city, designed specifically as a community center.
Located in the center of the city, Van Dyck Park is home to outdoor tennis and basketball courts, trails and picnic shelters.
Some city council members do not agree that the park is the best location for the center.
“And that will be the subject of some debate, since there are a number of reasons why we'll have a hard time supporting [the community center location] in the park,” said Councilman Jeffrey Greenfield.
Greenfield said that valid points from critics of the plan should be noted, specifically complaints that a large section of parkland would be taken up by the new building and surrounding parking lot.
Also at the Tuesday meeting, the council was supposed to vote on whether to award a design contract to Hughes Group – directly after allocating the $600,000 from the $5 million war chest – but “minor aspects of the agreement,” could not be agreed upon between the contractor and the city, said Michael McCarty, Director of Parks and Recreation.
McCarty said the developer should be on board by the next meeting, ready for the council to vote on awarding the contract. That meeting will be held on Tuesday, June 24.