Story By: Will Locascio, Arts & Entertainment Editor
Photos By: Jaelyn Kinton
Grand Junction residents chose to expand the growing city’s Parks and Recreation department, adding a community rec center.
The Grand Junction municipal election, Tuesday April 4, was an important one for the community, as a wide margin of Grand Junction residents were holding high hopes of the town receiving its first community rec center. The lack of a community rec center has long been one of the major downfalls of Grand Junction’s Parks and Recreation department, as there are incredible upsides that come with these types of establishments for the community. The ballot measure to create a community rec center in Grand Junction was finally passed on April 4 to the great pleasure of Grand Junction residents and City Council members alike.
The campaign website promoting residents to, “Vote yes on 1A,” cited the benefits of a community rec center as, “Promotion of health and wellness, social connections, and affordable activities for all ages.” Community rec centers can also introduce the next generation of this community to individual empowerment and build a more inclusive community.
The community rec center ballot measure was previously attempted to be passed in the city election in 2019, when it failed despite focused attempts from the community to help the building of the rec center be approved. This new rec center comes with a .14% sales tax increase, most of which will be pulled from the sales at the incoming marijuana dispensaries that were approved to be built in last year’s city election.
As for what changed between the 2019 attempt to get the rec center built and where we are now, former Fruita Parks and Recreation director Ture Nycum spoke of the changes, stating,
“I know that they thought about putting the recreation center near the pool downtown and then they moved it back to Matchett Park, they had a much improved overall plan, as well as the support from the marijuana tax also helped the overall financial picture, they didn’t necessarily have to hassle as much.”
In 2011, Nycum served an instrumental role in establishing the first community recreation center in Fruita and witnessed the change happen in the community due to Parks & Recreation’s efforts to establish the center. Speaking on the role a Parks & Recreation department should play in a community, Nycum said,
“A Parks & Recreation department should be a reflection of the community that it serves. We should be providing the facilities, the services, the programs, that the community wants. If that means a recreation center, then we should be providing that.”
The services and work of a Parks & Recreation department should almost always be benefiting and serving the people of its community and Nycum sees these services as a vital element of a thriving society.
“Parks and Recreation I also consider (to be) preventative health and part of the upstream piece of healthcare. When Parks and Recreation is supported by the community and asked to provide these services, I think it just improves the overall health of the community. I’m not talking just physical health but also social health.”
The community of Grand Junction was certainly asking for the installation of a community rec center more feverishly than ever going into this city election, taking a drive down the neighborhoods surrounding Main St. it was a common occurrence to see campaign signs promoting the approval of 1A to build the recreation center. Lea Friday, a local Grand Junction resident with a 1A campaign sign on her lawn said,
“Every other community I’ve been in has had a rec center, It’s been a place we’ve gathered. This was the first place we haven’t had one so I was a little bummed, but now I’m happy.”
Plans for the upcoming Grand Junction community rec center include a lap pool, warm water leisure pool, a gymnasium, fitness and weights area, indoor track, as well as meeting rooms and other community gathering spaces. The area around Matchett Park where the rec center will be located is an area that has not had many community services or resources in the past, this will allow a slightly underdeveloped section of Grand Junction to be more fleshed out upon the completion of the recreation center.
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