The City of Manhattan held an open house Tuesday for its newly completed addition, which now houses the Parks and Recreation Department.
The department was previously housed in a converted shop in City Park. It was supposed to be a temporary location; but over 30 years passed and Parks and Rec started to feel the impact of a deteriorating facility.
“We had 15 people in the building and we had 1 unisex bathroom that had to be shared by everybody,” said Parks and Recreation Director, Eddie Eastes, “so to be able to get our staff in proper accommodations is very important.”
As the pressure mounted to find a new location for Parks and Rec, the City considered re-purposing Peace Memorial Auditorium to house the department. The community responded and voiced its interest in preserving the space as a living memorial of the 101 soldiers from Manhattan and Riley County who gave their lives to defend the country in World War II.
As a compromise, the City Commission decided to expand City Hall with new office space on the north side of the building.
It’s a one-stop-shop,” said City Manager, Ron Fehr, “you can pretty much take care of most everything you need from city services and parks and recreation.”
The project was mainly financed by excess sales tax revenue that has built-up over the years.
“There was about a million dollars saved-up for that and that goes to this as well as some additional cost that will be realized through some staff savings through the consolidation of bringing folks together here,” Fehr added.
The project also includes a component that allows the community to raise funds for improvements to the lighting, stage and sound system in Peace Memorial Auditorium. An official group called Friends of Peace Memorial Auditorium kicked-off its fund raising campaign in January and to date, has raised approximately 170 thousand dollars in cash and promised donations. The group’s fund raising goal is 500 thousand dollars.
If you’re interested in contributing to the renovations, you can send a donation via mail to:
Friends of Peace Memorial Auditorium. P.O.Box 265, Manhattan, KS 66505.
