Big Lake rec center celebrates completion

BIG LAKE — It’s been six years since the community effort began to build a new recreation center here.

The effort grew out of a community meeting about the vandalism plaguing the Big Lake Library and Jordan Lake Park next door. During the community discussions that followed, project coordinator Bill Haller said young people in Big Lake said there was nothing to do and no where to do it.

If this had been a government project, the next step would have been a study — or 10 — to explore the impacts of adding a combined community and recreation center. It’s a point of pride for Haller that there is no stack of studies to support the worth of the Big Lake Recreation and Community Center.

The first season the 26,000-square-foot ice arena opened without heat, bathrooms or locker rooms, Haller said. Still the rink averaged 1,200 kids a week on the ice, sometimes with temperatures inside dipping to less than 20 below, he said.

He measures success this way, “That’s 1,200 kids a week in the winter that aren’t on the street or on the sofa,” Haller said. “Instead they are here learning a team sport.”

Haller is the ball of energy behind this massive fundraising and construction project. And he said he plans to remain at the center as volunteer facility manager now that Phase 2 is complete. The goal was always to add heated locker rooms, bathrooms and expand the community center as funding was available, he said.

Work on Phase II, which added a two-story entry area to the arena that includes two sets of bathrooms, two sets of locker rooms, a commercial kitchen, ref’s changing area, an office for a Public Health Nurse, a concession stand, skate rental area and a banquet room and chairs and tables to seat 300, expanded the center to 38,000 square feet.

Last winter the downstairs portion of Phase II was open, but the upstairs was only finished this summer, Haller said. A celebration is planned from 6:30 to 9 p.m., Aug. 9 to mark the completion of Phase I and II. The fun includes live music, food, no-host cocktails and more.

Already this summer the center’s banquet room and meeting room has seen some use. The second floor observation area is a combined banquet hall and observation deck for the ice arena. That means fans can see the action on the ice without feeling the cold in the arena.

Mat-Su Borough Assembly members will try out the new space when they meet in Big Lake Sept. 2. And should that meeting get too heated, the center also is air conditioned, Haller said.

“There is no facility like this in the Valley,” he said.

Folks familiar with the area also will notice the absence of the Big Lake Lions Club House. It was sold and relocated to make room for an eventual picnic pavilion and playground area, Haller said.

“This wouldn’t have been possible without a lot of help,” Haller said.

Contact Heather A. Resz at 352-2268 or heather.resz@frontiersman.com.