Revived Earle Community Center seeing success
Revived Earle Community Center seeing success
news@theeveningtimes.com
Earle’s long neglected community center is thriving and now will be overseen by a newly appointed committee who will set policies and procedures and try to keep it rented out.
Mayor Sherman Smith announced that he has appointed former Mayor Otis Davis, Sonya Lampley, Brenda Luckett, Triniqueka Hurst, and Councilman Donnie Cheers to serve on the committee.
“This is for oversight,” Smith said. “The information as a whole will be coming back to the council and we will be there for guidance. And hopefully they will have something to present to us about the best practices on the operation of a community center and bring us back something to approve.”
The building is located on Hwy. 64 in a former car dealership. The city got a $22,000 grant in 2013 from East Arkansas Planning and Development to renovated the structure for a community center. In recent years the community center has gone mostly unused and been the source of more conflict than actual use. The center has been used for a free health clinic, family events, and at one point East Arkansas Family Health Center was interested in using the building, but nothing materialized.
The city installed air conditioning, fixed the roof, replaced ceiling tile, and expanded the kitchen to make the building useable, and also repaired some glass and concrete after the building was vandalized.
Smith said the community center is being well used now but wants the committee to come up with rules and policies and set the rates for its use.
“The community center has been really busy,” Smith said. “Sometimes we have had as many as two or three activities there per weekend, which is exactly what we want.”
Councilman Kenneth Cross asked if the community center was making money for the city.
“Is the money coming in covering the costs at this time?” Cross asked.
Smith said he hasn’t looked at the numbers yet and doubts that it is covering its costs. However, Smith said he is glad to see it being used which is the overall goal.
“I’m sure we’re not,” Smith said. “I am just really glad to see it being used by the community. My thinking is this committee can give us some ideas and we can set some policies and a rate to cover some of our costs.”
Smith said the committee is looking at five or six similar size communities who have facilities to see what they charge and some policies to guide them as they move forward.
“I think we can come up with some common sense policies,” Smith told the city council.
Smith also informed the council that Lighthouse Fellowship has asked to adopt the community center as a project. The church would like to clean the building at least once a month.
“They wanted that to be their community project,” Smith said. “And that is really big for us. That is the kind of support we need. It is a really nice building. We really have something we can be proud of and we want to get the word out so we can keep it that way.”
By Mark Randall
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