By Jackson Schneider
MANHATTAN, Kan. - Not long ago, Manhattan only had one recreational basketball court for the community to use. That's no longer the case. In fact, in just a few short months, it will have 11.
Friday afternoon, the city officially opened its newest recreation facility, adjacent to Anthony Middle School. The Anthony Recreation Center is a state of the art recreation complex featuring multi-use indoor courts for basketball, volleyball, pickleball, and also the ability to move turf in and out of the facility for indoor soccer, baseball, and more.
"My big thing has always been frugal use of government money and getting a return on your investment" said Manhattan Mayor Wynn Butler. "For me this building is just a perfect example of that. We had A, the taxpayers voted on a sales tax to pay for it. B, we let the money pile up, so we didn't go out and take a giant bond and pay interest. We waited until we had the money, then we built the buildings, and we collaborated with the school district."
The facility will have two courts for the school to use during school hours and two courts for public use at that time, but following school hours, the entire facility will be open to the public.
"We've got us a building that serves the school, it serves the city through parks and rec, and then the design, which was just absolutely outstanding," said Butler. "We built a facility that takes care of all security problems.
The building's restroom facilities are separate so that during school hours the building is sealed off from school for safety, but adversely, during the evening, the recreation facility can be sealed off from the school entirely for those security purposes as well.
According to Butler, the city has various plans for future recreation tournaments and events at the new facility that will help not only to create a return on the investment of the building, but also stimulate the local economy.
The City of Manhattan recently opened another recreation facility just off of Fort Riley Blvd. in Manhattan and will open yet another adjacent Eisenhower Middle School in the coming months.