Gathering the community
Winooski to build new community center

Emily Rose | staff writer
erose@smcvt.edu

On Sept. 25, Winooski residents voted to pass a proposed $2.2 million bond that will be used to help build a community center.

A projected image of what the community center will look like. Picture courtesy of J. Ladd

Community Development Department Director J. Ladd has been the force behind the project. His biggest goal is to have a place for community members to gather, Ladd says.

“Right now there is no place in Winooski for the public to gather except the school and the spaces in the school are really densely booked,” Ladd says. “School kids are reluctant to go back after school hours. To encourage kids and community members to go to gatherings, it makes sense to go off school grounds.”

The phases of building

The community center will be located at the former Mr. G’s shopping center on Mallett’s Bay Avenue. This site was chosen over three others, including Landry Park, a church site where the Winooski senior center is located and the Winooski Armory, Ladd says.

Originally, there were three phases to the project, but phase I and II will be combined. Phase I is retrofitting, the empty shopping center into a suitable community center. The city will be putting $1.8 million worth of improvements into redoing the site. Phase II is the purchasing of the land, estimated at $1 million. Instead of purchasing the land after doing the retrofit, the city is doing the phases simultaneously which was not initially the plan, Ladd says.

“We’re hoping to close on the property at the end of the month, and then start construction on Nov. 1,” he says.
Phase III, which includes building a gym and indoor pool to be run by the YMCA, will cost about $7 million. The money still needed after the $2.2 million bond will come from fund-raising and donations, Ladd says.

“$1 million of the bond is being used as mortgage to buy the property,” Ladd says. “That mortgage gets paid for by the rent. The base rent will be used to pay off the mortgage over 20 years.”

Ladd says he is fund-raising for the $1.8 million for retrofit improvements. The city has approached both national and local foundations, as well as significant community leaders. Among those leaders is St. Michael's College alumnus, Richard Tarrant, who donated $1 million.

“Tarrant donated $1 million for the whole project, phases I through III,” Ladd says. “He knows issues that teenagers in Winooski have. His foundation [the Richard E. and Deborah L. Tarrant Foundation] addresses issues of poverty.”

Ladd says there are other donors who have donated $100,000 as private donors, and organizations giving $250,000 or $100,000.

“I need $1.8 million to say to the contractor, ‘go’,” he says. “I can’t say ‘I’m getting a donation in a few months, I’ll pay you later.' I have around $700,000 at this point.”

Filling the center

The Winooski Community Center will host a number of organizations, one of which is a satellite facility for the Greater Burlington YMCA. There will be an exercise room with state of the art equipment, small changing spaces, and a small child watch area, says Tim Rollings, YMCA president. The most important aspect, according to Rollings, will be a multi-purpose space where the community meets.

“Young people want a place where they can go where they can be involved in an activity,” he says.

Another section will be a physical therapy clinic, in cooperation with Fletcher Allen. People who need therapy can use a therapy pool right in their own community.

Rollings says he is looking forward to giving the community activities that the residents want to do. There will be activities for families, young people, senior citizens, fit people, not-fit people, and everyone in between.

“We’re going to ask residents what they’d like,” Rollings says. “We work on building strong kids, strong families, and strong communities. We’re going to ask, ‘What would you like to do after school?’”

Other organizations in the center will include a dental clinic and a medical clinic, sharing a front reception area as well as a back room. Workers from the dental and health clinic will be working together with people who aren’t directly their colleagues, Ladd says.

“A doc sees a person who needs dental care and that person can walk right across the room,” he says.

The Euro Market, specializing in eastern European food, will also be located in the community center. The Parks and Recreation department will have a bike shop. There will also be the Winooski family, teen, and youth centers, Ladd says.

“The family center focuses on generationally poor families or individuals, especially children and potentially poor families and children,” Ladd says.

Immigrants can come in and the Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program will be able to teach them to cook and shop for Western food. In some cases they may even be able to sell their own food at the farmer’s market or in the atrium, Ladd says.

Making the most of community

The community center will provide opportunities for the children of Winooski and the surrounding areas, including the children that visit St. Michael’s with the Little Brother/Little Sister program (LB/LS). Some of the kids involved in the program do not have other chances to hang out with kids their age, says Mariah Dukeshire, coordinator for LB/LS.

“I am excited for the people in Winooski, especially the kids,” Dukeshire says. “I think it will be a good resource and place for kids to hang out.”

It is possible that in the future the LB/LS program could make use of the community center. They are trying to do more group-oriented activities, so perhaps the community center would be a place to do those, Dukeshire says.

“The community center would just be an additional thing,” Dukeshire says.

Ladd says he wants people in the community to be as involved in the project as possible, even St. Michael’s students.

“St. Mike’s students are both needed and welcome to be more than just readers about this project,” he says. “The benefit of working on this project is personal gratification.”