New Morgan County event center set to open by October
For the Enquirer
When a new event center opens this year in Morgan County, residents will find a place for basketball, pickleball, volleyball, walking and a space for birthday parties and other events.
“It’s a very high-quality event center building, and it is going to be a huge asset to the community, particularly youth sports,” said Jonathan Bartlett, superintendent of Limestone Building Group, the general contractor on the project.
The $7.16 million, 34,627-square-foot event center is under construction in eastern Morgan County at Luker and Union Hill roads, across the street from the District 4 shop in Cotaco.
It is scheduled to open in September or October this year.
It will have two 10,350-squarefoot courts for basketball, volleyball or pickleball, as well as an upper-level walking track, according to Michael Wetzel, communications director for the Morgan County Commission. It will also have a 1,102-square-foot multipurpose room for birthday parties, family reunions and anniversary parties, he said. There is also a concessions space.
Wetzel said the facility will be available to rent for travel ball tournaments and trade shows.
“The two gyms are going to be good,” said Ray Long, County Commission chairman. “You can hold tournaments. Travel ball is a big thing nowadays, and we can rent it out for that. And volleyball tournaments, you have them everywhere now; it’s really growing.
“The walking track is going to attract citizens out there, espe-cially in the winter just wanting a good place to walk. It won’t be bad to work out in during the summer either because it will be air-conditioned. … We think it’s something the community is going to be really proud of.” The building was designed similar to an event center in Madison County, but with some improvements.
For example, the event center in Madison County has two gyms but just one row of bleachers. The Morgan County version was widened to allow more seating in the gym area, Bartlett said.
“We have it wide enough so that you can turn the volleyball courts and play sideways four games at one time – two on each court,” Long said.
The chairman explained the process they went through to get the best possible event center for the money.
“We went out and looked at several different gyms, and the one in Madison County had the two gyms, the rooms for people to meet in, and the big walking track upstairs,” Long said. “That really fit what we thought we wanted out in the county. We put that together and used the same architectural firm – Goodwyn, Mills and Cawood – to do this one because they pretty much already had the footprint down.” Planning the design was important to the commissioners.
“We wanted to make sure we had it right before we got started,” Long said. “So, a lot of thought went into it. We didn’t rush into a decision. We put a lot into it and talked to several people.” Bartlett said July is the tar-get date on trying to finish construction, but Long said it won’t be open until September or October.
County Engineer Greg Bodley said the county will still have work to do after the contractors finish, such as finishing up the parking lot and landscaping.
“We don’t want to try to do that with a lot of construction equipment on top of it,” Bodley said.
So far, the project is on schedule. The entire building is framed with steel beams, and workers have just begun reinforcing them and hanging the sheet metal on the outside.
“We’re moving along as originally scheduled, so we are right on track with this preengineered metal building,” Bartlett said. “We have a great site here.” The initial sitework and the gravel all around the site helps tremendously in avoiding weather delays, Bartlett said.
Wetzel said the county saved more than $1 million on the project by doing some of the site preparation themselves.
“The next two weeks are going to be the biggest challenge for workers because it is expected to be cold and possibly windy,” Bartlett said. “Crews only knock off if it is dangerously cold or windy.” The next two weeks will also be a period of transformation, he said.
“Probably within the next two weeks or so you will really start to see a difference in how the building looks because they are going to start closing in the exterior walls as well as put the roof on the bigger part of the gyms,” Bartlett said.
He said currently crews are concentrating on metal bracing of the building which is crucial to make sure the wind and weather cannot blow it down.
Unlike during the COVID era, they are not having any supplychain issues on this build, Bartlett said.
“We have been very fortunate on this one because I think we are finally starting to get ahead of some of those issues,” he said. “We’ve had some projects in the past where that was an issue.”
Ag center
Right behind the event center, the county plans to build an ag center.
“It will be like the old arena at Priceville; we’re going to build something similar to that where we can have livestock shows for the kids (school students),” Long said. “Of course, we will use it for other events, too.
“We have some of the money committed so we know we are going to do it. We should hire an architect during the next meeting or two.” Funding for the event center came from multiple sources, Wetzel said.
The 24 acres upon which it is being built was purchased with $180,000 from the county’s settlement with 3M Co. The bulk of the construction costs will be paid for with about $2 million in 3M settlement money, at least $2 million in American Rescue Plan Act money, some from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act money and some from the capital improvement money the county gets from the state each May.
“It ought to be a huge asset not just for the east side of the county but for the whole county,” Long said. “We’re looking forward to it getting open.”
