Lincoln celebrates opening of new $10.5M Air Park community center

A day after kids in a summer day camp moved into a new space — the $10.5 million Air Park Community Center just east of Arnold Elementary — Honor Mazuch found herself sharing the new space with a bunch of adults and cameras and microphones.

After some of those adults made speeches lauding the community center — which replaces the longtime recreation center in the former military barracks built in 1954 as part of the Lincoln Air Force Base —the woman at the podium asked reporters if they had any questions.

They didn’t. But Honor, a third-grader participating in the summer day camp, did.

“Are you the mayor?”

Yes, was the answer, followed by a query from another of the blue T-shirt-clad summer camp observers: “Can anyone come here?”

Yes, answered Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird, arguably one of the best things about the 25,000 square feet of new space that includes a city library branch, a full-size gym, three smaller fitness rooms, meeting spaces and a multi-purpose and game room with the requisite pool, ping pong and foosball tables.

Construction workers were still putting finishing touches on the building, installing playground equipment and finishing a park area Tuesday, but city officials got an occupancy permit Friday, and Honor and her friends took up residence Monday.

Gaylor Baird said that when she was still on the City Council she worked to make building a new Air Park center a priority and seeing it open and full of people it was intended to educate and empower was a huge victory.

The old recreation center was old and increasingly dilapidated, and city officials determined renovating it wasn’t feasible. Now that the new center is open, they’ll demolish it.

The new center was paid for with about $6.2 million in non-voter-approved bonds called certificates of participation and nearly $1.4 million raised in a capital campaign, in addition to general fund dollars, keno funds and impact fees that paid for the playground equipment.

The new center is on parkland called Huskerville Park. Lincoln Parks and Recreation Director Maggie Stuckey-Ross said the playground equipment outside will be accompanied by a picnic shelter, an artificial turf playfield and a walking trail.

The programming at the old center — the before — and after-school programs, the open senior programs, rock-steady boxing for people who suffer from Parkinson’s disease and karate classes — will move to the new center.

But the new center will allow for more programs, Stuckey-Ross said, including group fitness classes, dance classes and still-to-be designed programming in collaboration with the library.

This is the first community center co-located with a library. The Williams Branch was co-located at Arnold Elementary, but there were numerous challenges with security and hours, so officials decided to move it to the community center. It also frees up space for the increasingly crowded elementary school.

The new library includes a fenced-in outdoor space with a chalk wall for kids or adults to write on, and two meeting rooms will be shared with the community center.

Heather Keele, an architect with Clark Enersen and one of the project managers, said there is a kitchenette and transition rooms for young people with behavioral issues that need them. The artificial turf outside will be a great space for outdoor movies and everything is located one floor for easy access.

“There’s something here for everyone,” she said, and why they named it a community center instead of a recreation center.

That was what Honor liked best, that it’s a place to make new friends, where people can be kind to each other. It’s why, she said, her favorite spot so far was the “cozy corner,” furnished with bean bag chairs to sit in and chill.

“I really think it’s going to be really fun,” she said.