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Girard plans to renovate gym built in 1930s
GIRARD
Generations of families have played sports and hosted events at Girard’s city gym since it was built in the 1930s.
Girard officials plan to renovate the gym to preserve it and encourage further recreational activity in the city.
It’s clear the gym – one of the few municipally owned in Ohio – is well past its prime. The floorboards are old and plaster is falling off the walls in some parts. Windows that used to provide natural light have been blocked by the construction of city hall.
The Youngstown-based architectural company GPD Group provided a proposal for the project with a total cost of $17,500 for services.
The services include repairing damaged plaster, replacing the windows, restoring the wood flooring, repairing the gym ceiling, replacing gym lighting and improving plumbing in the gym bathrooms.
Girard Mayor James Melfi said they are in the first phase of the project. They are waiting on results for a sample of plaster that was collected for testing.
The city wants to ensure there aren’t harmful substances such as asbestos in the plaster because it was built over 85 years ago.
“We are taking measures to make sure we are doing everything safely,” he said.
The mayor notes this stage could slow down the process: “There’s not a pot of gold for the gym, so the first potential pitfall will be if there is asbestos in the plaster,” he said. If there is, it could take more of the budget and would take more time as crews would be called to remove it.
The construction phase will be next.
“Council is excited about the city making steps to improve personal wellness,” said Councilman William Ryser, head of the building and grounds committee. “The city gym is an important facility.”
The gym was last updated in 1993.
The city no longer hosts leagues as it did decades ago, but people still rent it to play basketball and volleyball and to host events such as the Girard Christmas Bazaar.
“It’s booked solid on the weekends,” the city’s recreation director Cookie Scirocco said. “I have guys who come regularly almost every night, so it does get a lot of use.”
Girard schools cheerleaders use the gym for practice, and the high school’s robotics team uses it for fundraising sales, for example.
“It’s pretty old, but it can be fixed up nice. It needs a lot of work done,” Scirocco said.
Melfi, like many people who grew up in Girard, would walk to the gym as a high schooler on Saturday mornings to play in basketball leagues. They would go to the former Isaly’s ice cream shop after a game for a cold treat.
Residents Chuck Doran and Mark Zuppo recalled playing sports at the gym while growing up, some for the intramural league and others after school. Erik Neff, who grew up in Girard and now lives in Howland, played while he was in middle school.
They were all also involved in coaching and refereeing games during and after high school.
“I like that place. I played there, I coached there, and I take my son to play there,” Neff said.
Neff said he used to play pickup basketball games at the gym. Now he takes his son there to play basketball with friends on Sundays. He coordinates games between Girard’s youth basketball team and teams from other schools at the gym.
He joked that the only downside to the renovations would be that more people would use it and take more time slots.
Doran has fond memories playing at the gym in high school.
“Saturday morning in Girard, you played basketball and then you went to JibJab [Hot Dog Shoppe]. It was a bunch of high-school boys hanging out together. We had our own teams that formed, and it was fun,” he said.
He said it’s great because it gives kids an activity to do in the winter and something to be part of.
Zuppo, city treasurer, worked as a part-time recreation director in 2000. He still helps coach fourth- through sixth-graders who practice there.
All three men said they are excited for renovations.
There’s not a projected timeline for the project as of now. Melfi said it partially depends on how the preliminary testing stages go.
“We’re excited about this project,” he said. “We are going to do it correctly because we get a lot of use out of the gym, and we want to make sure our citizens, and anyone who uses it, can enjoy it safely.”
To rent the gym for sports practice or an event, call Scirocco at 330-720-8215. The gym is attached to city hall.