Riverside gathers info for community building

RIVERSIDE ? A committee of Riverside residents has gathered information on surrounding community centers, and it presented that information at the Riverside Community Building Sunday night. The committee collected the information to get a better idea of how to build a new community building in Riverside.

At a meeting in April, the committee made a list of about 20 questions to ask the neighboring towns that had community centers. They included questions such as how the center was funded, how it generates revenue, what recreational activities it has and what age groups it serves. The committee visited recreational facilities in Wellman, Kalona, Williamsburg, Blairstown, Iowa City, North Liberty and Tipton.

Mary Jane Stumpf is on the committee and she, along with Christine Kirkwood and Lisa Czyzewicz, investigated the community buildings in Wellman in Kalona. Stumpf said she was very impressed with what she saw, especially the way daycare was run at the Parkside Activities Center.

The committee was interested in how other towns paid for their recreation centers. Stumpf said she found out Wellman hired a professional grant writer to secure funding.

Stumpf said the investigation revealed that no two towns are alike.

?Each one had something different and unique from the other one,? she said. ?For instance, Wellman already has a rolling skating rink, a library and a senior center. Those are things we?re looking at, too. We may not necessarily want a roller rink in our community building but we definitely want a library and a reading room.?

Stumpf said Kalona was also different from the other towns in that its community building shares space with its city hall. She didn?t anticipate Riverside doing that since it already has a city hall. However, she said there has been talk about putting the Riverside History Center in the new community building, although Stumpf likes the history center?s current location along Highway 22.

Julie Oriano, another member of the committee, said she was pleased that all the towns the committee talked to were cooperative and that the committee got a lot of great information. The most surprising piece of information she encountered was the cost of swimming pools. Oriano and Lois Schneider traveled to Tipton to learn about the James Kennedy Family Aquatic Center. She and Schneider were surprised at how expensive it was to run the pumps at the pool and to comply with pool regulations.

?Several communities said they looked into a pool but found that it was cost prohibitive,? she said.

Oriano said there were some things about the aquatic center that could be incorporated into Riverside?s community building. She liked how the aquatic center had a concession stand had two windows ? one which faced the pool customers and another which faced those outside the pool. Local restaurants provided food to sell at the concession stand over lunch.

The Riverside City Council has talked about the possibility of putting the proposed splashpad in the proposed community building. Oriano said that was not discussed at her committee?s meeting Sunday. She said the council will eventually have to be involved in the process. She said the committee may ask the council for money to purchase fliers to advertise the committee?s meeting, because it was important to the committee members to get as much community input as possible.

The committee agreed to meet again July 19, the third Thursday of the month. They agreed to meet every third Thursday of the month.

Stumpf said she would be pleased if the committee were able to create preliminary plans for a community building within a year.