Officials break ground on $1.3 million expansion for local recreation center
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POCATELLO — Pocatello city officials joined with Portneuf Health Trust Monday to break ground on an expansion for the Pocatello Community Recreation Center.
The $1.3 million project will begin immediately and is slated for completion this spring or summer.
“It’s nice to have community partners like the Portneuf Health Trust to actually do things like this in our community,” said Mayor Brian Blad. “It’s a good relationship that we’ve seen being built stronger and even better into the future.”
The expansion project will add over 3,000-square-feet of indoor space and a new weight room to the recreation center. It will also include updates to flooring and paint throughout the building.
Dance and aerobics classes are currently held in the gym. Once the expansion is complete, the old weight room will become a space for these classes.
“(People are) just going to have more opportunities to exercise and recreate here. It’s gonna make everyone more comfortable,” Parks and Rec Director Anne Butler said.
The new weight room will be in a section of the building with three walls in an enclosed area.
This project began in 2021 when Portneuf Health Trust CEO Shaun Menchaca began meeting with former Parks and Recreation Director John Banks about city projects it could help with. Menchaca had good memories of bringing his children to the recreation center for swim lessons and wondered what PHT could do for it.
They noticed the space was packed with people using machines and was inadequate for the number of community members it was serving.
“They could hardly even move,” Menchaca said.
When they went to the gym, they found a group of kids using it for basketball. Pretty soon, they had to give up the space for an exercise class.
More than 300 people come in on a daily basis just to work out, according to Center Manager Stacey VanKirk, and the facility gets more than 200,000 visits a year.
“We’ve needed the extra square footage for a really long time,” VanKirk said.