Eagle opened a new community center in December. A month later, the new mayor closed it
The Eagle Landing community center was meant to be a project all of Eagle could be proud of. But now, a little over a month since the former mayor and city council opened it, Eagle’s new mayor and city council have put the center’s future in doubt.
The city bought the building and two others last June on a 1.5-acre parcel downtown at 175 E. Mission Drive. Workers quickly renovated the first two buildings: one for the community center, and another for an office for the Parks and Recreation Department. Work is still underway on a third, a church built in 1938, which will be the new home of the Eagle Museum of History and Preservation.
In December, former Eagle Mayor Stan Ridgeway and the City Council cut the ribbon for the community center and parks office. Families and children cheered the prospect of after-school classes and workshops.
On Jan. 14, Jason Pierce, who beat Ridgeway in November’s mayoral election, was sworn in. Within a week, Pierce closed the center, canceling all events and classes.
The problem, he explained at a special City Council meeting Friday, Jan. 24, to discuss the center, was that the city hadn’t procured a certificate of occupancy before employees moved in.
Typically, new building owners apply for a certificate of occupancy with a city, which conducts a building inspection to ensure they are complying with building codes.
There were other compliance problems, too, Pierce said. The Eagle Fire Department, upon an inspection of the building earlier this month, asked that more exit signs be hung above the center’s three emergency-exit doors. The city also failed to install proper drainage within the parking lot on the site.
The closure has left event organizers scrambling for temporary locations. And it has disappointed some residents, like Lonnie Bensley, whose granddaughter attends the nearby Eagle Elementary School of the Arts. She sat in her car outside the community center on Friday afternoon.
“It’s too bad they have to close it on technicalities like that,” she said.
But at the council meeting, Pierce stressed that his decision was a matter of public safety.
“If we don’t have public safety as our No. 1 thing, how do parents trust us with their kids?” he told the Statesman.
But behind the conversation among the mayor and the new council about what could be done to bring the community center into compliance was a question of whether it should exist at all.
During his campaign, Pierce took a stance against the Eagle Landing project. He remains skeptical. So do two other City Council newcomers.
Like Pierce, they defeated incumbents. All three campaigned against the policies of the former mayor and council, from their handling of the Eagle Water Co. lawsuit to their reaction to growth.
Now, the three of them outnumber the holdovers from last year who approved the purchase of Eagle Landing.
“I’m not sure it’s the right place to do what we’re doing,” Pierce told the Statesman. “We have kids from an elementary school that are crossing a busy street.”
To the council, he asked: “Do we put our time and effort into this, or do we not?”
Already, the city has spent nearly $1.7 million on the community center, Pierce said. Updates to the parking lot would cost around $105,000, and other security features like key-card access would cost around $60,000, he added.
“I needed to get direction from Council on whether to move forward,” Pierce told the Statesman. “We have a lot more expenses on this building.”
Councilman Charlie Baun, who also was elected in November, told the Statesman he also had concerns about the space but didn’t have enough information to determine if the city should keep the Eagle Landing property.
“I agree with the concept of having the classroom space, the office space,” he said. “The location: I don’t know.”
Pittman and Gold, who had approved the Eagle Landing project as council members last year, stressed the importance of the community center.
“We now have a place where we can have classes,” Pittman said. “Same with the offices — we were overcrowded. People were in closets here (at City Hall). We doubled the size of the museum. Now have 2,400 square feet in a historical building. It was one of the things I’m proud of that we passed as a council.”
Councilman Brad Pike, also newly elected, took issue with that. “If we’re doing photo ops in front of places that aren’t in compliance, then we’re pushing the cart in front of the horse,” he said. “For us to even turn the lights on and unlock the doors was a discredit to the public. The city was totally vulnerable and liable.”
Ridgeway, who approved the Eagle Landing project in his last year as mayor, was surprised by the current council’s reaction to the new community center.
“Now that they’ve been elected, it seems like they’re determined to do away with anything that the previous council did,” he said in an interview.
For now, the project is moving forward. Pierce said the city plans to re-open the community center on Monday. The council directed the staff to move forward with a bid for drainage work on the parking lot, and to make progress on bringing the building up to code.
Pittman stood behind the city’s previous work on Eagle Landing. “I believe the community has benefited from this.”
This story was originally published January 25, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
