The City of Riverside will hear feedback at a work session on Monday, Jan. 11 on its developing plans to build a community center in town from Carl A. Nelson and Company, which recently completed a …
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The City of Riverside will hear feedback at a work session on Monday, Jan. 11 on its developing plans to build a community center in town from Carl A. Nelson and Company, which recently completed a survey campaign regarding the project.
Carl A. Nelson turned heads in the area in 2019, after the construction management company took over community center renovations in Kalona, completing them under budget and on schedule despite being $3 million over-budget before their involvement. The company stepped into Riverside’s community center discussions in early October of last year.
City Administrator Christine Yancy said plans for the center were exciting, but still largely in the concept stage.
“We do own a plot of land that is up by the elementary school, and then they’ve also talked about putting one in the downtown area,” she said. “The placement has not been officially set in stone.”
If the council moves forward on the project, it will form a committee of city officials and residents, a position Yancy said at least ten people had already expressed interest in.
“There were several people that filled out on the survey that they would like to be on the committee,” she said. “I think anybody who wants to serve on the committee should be allowed to serve… my feeling is the more volunteers you have, the better.”
Though the official results are pending, Yancy said she was optimistic about the feedback she had seen so far.
“For the most part I think things were favorable to having a community center, but we’ll find out when they compile the report,” she said at the Riverside city council meeting on Jan. 4. “There were some negatives, I won’t say there weren’t, but for the most part it was good.”
The city administrator said most of the negative feedback was concerned with the project’s cost, which tentatively falls between $3 million and $4 million.
“Those that weren’t for it… they just felt like more should be spent on infrastructure and water, sewer and streets than a community center,” Yancy said in an interview. “I think the city has been pretty aggressive at upgrading all of their utilities and the street, so it doesn’t sound like that’s going to have to take a back seat, we should be able to continue to do both.”
