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Indoor activity center slated to be built in township park next year
POLAND
Community leaders are getting closer to bringing an indoor activity center to Poland.
Indoor Poland Activity Center board members say they have verbal commitments for about half of the $800,000 they want to raise through private donations, and will break ground on the facility in March 2015 if fundraising is complete. They do not yet have an estimated construction cost.
The idea for an indoor facility was first proposed in 2012 by former township trustee Mark Naples. IPAC started in 2013 and finalized an agreement with the township to lease space in the township park in October 2013.
The facility will have a 22,000-square-foot main activity area with field turf and netting for athletics, and a 3,000-square-foot side building with a conference room.
The athletics area will accommodate soccer, baseball, football, volleyball, wrestling and lacrosse. The conference area will be available for events, meetings and conferences.
“What we hope is for all different activities, sports and non-sports,” said Skip Slaven, IPAC vice president. “This is certainly not just going to be a center for athletics.”
The center will provide restroom facilities to the park, which the park does not now have.
The activity center will be built at the township park located between Cowden, Moore and Miller roads, which the township leases from Republic Services-operated Carbon Limestone Landfill for $1 annually.
The park already is home to the community’s soccer fields since the Poland Youth Soccer Association started playing there in 2008.
The facility is slated to be complete in fall 2015.
“The more people that know in the community, the more easily this can be achieved,” said IPAC president Zel Bush at a recent informational meeting. “I think if we can get 5,000 people who really believe in this project, it’s not that big of a thing to achieve.”
To donate or get involved with IPAC, email IPAC.Poland@gmail.com.