City approves bid for rec-center revamp

New Bern’s leaders unanimously approved a $1 million contract Tuesday night for renovations and an addition to the 1970s Stanley White Recreation Center, a project they said was needed, even in tough-budget times, to restore a “city asset.”

The contract, specifically $1,021,496, was awarded to New Bern-based Brydge & Lee Inc. The contractors’ scope of work includes upgrades to existing lighting, plumbing, doors, tile, paint and carpet, and a 2,668-square-foot addition that will include wheelchair-accessible bathrooms.

The city has a $500,000 state grant to pay for a portion of the project, and has a $600,000 loan approved by the Local Government Commission to cover the rest of the tab. All told, $1.1 million has been dedicated to the project, and the money that is not paid to Brydge & Lee goes toward paying for design, planning and bid work done by New Bern-based Peterson, Eure and Associates or goes into a project contingency fund.

“We’ve been working on this thing for five years, and we’ve had this grant since 2007, so I’ve got everything I have crossed that the aldermen will approve this thing,” Thurman Hardison, the city’s director of parks and recreation, said Tuesday before the meeting.

Hardison said that the gym, which is on Chapman Street downtown, was built in the mid-1970s, “and pretty much no equipment has been updated since then, except for the water fountains.”

Building new bathrooms that are accessible for handicapped people and upgrading the center’s lobby to make it more energy efficient are two major plans included in the project, Hardison said,

“The lobby area is undergoing a pretty major change to give it a fresh look, but also to make it an air lock,” Hardison said. “Right now, as people go in and out, there is no buffer at all, but this change should make a significant difference in terms of utilities.”

As it stands, the project does not include any significant roof work, Hardison said, though there are several leaks in the building. During the aldermen’s neighborhood meeting at the gym last week, buckets caught rain in several areas.

But Hardison said that, according to evaluations from the city’s Public Works Department, those leaks only show up during “torrential rains” like the one last week.

Ahead of the meeting, Mayor Lee Bettis said the city’s leaders are going to have to “squeeze the budget tight” in the months ahead, and added that he believes New Bern may have to raise tax rates. Still, Bettis, all the aldermen and interim City Manager Ed Wyatt were supportive of the project Tuesday night.

The resolution to approve the million-dollar bid Tuesday began by recognizing an architectural study of the recreation center that was done years ago. That study, done in May 2005, said that even five years ago, various finishes and equipment in the gym had “more than exceeded their intended useful lives.”

Nikie Mayo can be reached at 252-635-5665 or nmayo@freedomenc.com.