Provo council unanimously approves rec center study

PROVO -- The Municipal Council may have moved residents one step closer to a new rec center in Provo at its meeting Tuesday night.

The Council members voted unanimously to accept an analysis for the center; it didn't actually commit the city to spend any money or prepare. It simply expressed the city's desire to continue with the process of deciding if now is the time and North Park is the place for a new, bigger, more inclusive community recreation center.

The biggest question that still remains is how to pay for it. Council Chairwoman Cynthia Dayton expressed her desire that the decision go to the voters, which would involve a general obligation bond to pay the $33 million bill. Councilwoman Cindy Richards wanted to reject even the discussion of using any CDBG funds, which she said would bring in too many regulations and drive the cost of the center up.

"There's few people in this world that enjoy recreation more than I do," she said in her final meeting on the Council. "However, in these economic times I am quite concerned."

Councilwoman Midge Johnson pointed out that the resolution read that the center may be built with no tax increases, but did not give any concrete statements to that effect.

"That was the operative word: maybe," she said.

The analysis recommended moving forward as quickly as possible because of the low construction costs brought on by the bad economy as well as saying about two-thirds of Provo residents support the idea. An exit poll taken on election day by BYU professors Quin Monson and Kelly Patterson showed that just more than half of residents favored it and almost a third had no opinion, while about 13 percent opposed it.

A new center would be built adjacent to the Veterans Pool and would replace The Center and the Eldred Senior Center by North Park and the current rec center at Provo High School.

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