New concept designs of future Rexburg recreation center

REXBURG, Idaho (KIFI) - In public hearing on Sept. 7, the City of Rexburg presented the designs of future recreation center that could possibly be built in the city soon. This is after many in the public have expressed interest in pursuing the possibility.

Jeff Crowther, the director of Recreation for the city of Rexburg, says people seeing the designs has generated a lot of positive momentum towards the project.

"I think is definitely got people even more excited just actually, not just thinking about the different amenities that we could have in this facility, but to actually see what it would look like potentially and then where it would be located at. And so now it's got people, really kind of dreaming about, wow, this would be really cool to have here in town."

Currently, the plan is to have the future center be built in RiversidePark near the Rexburg Rapids. He says having the center here will have an added benefit.

"Just having the the potentially the two facilities next to each other makes a whole lot of sense. It it increases the value of of a membership to the facility because then you could get into both facilities potentially. But then there's also a lot of efficiencies as well, whether it's building or just the operations of it. More so, I would say is, you can have both facilities there. Staffing and all that stuff just makes it a little bit easier to to have it in one place."

Crowther says the city is thankful for the feedback they have received from the public and encourages that feedback to continue.

"We're very interested to see people's thoughts on it and get as much involvement from the community as possible so we can get to representation of what the community wants."

The designs plan for a 78,000 sq ft. building, that will be two stories. Inside the design is an indoor aquatic facility, gyms, indoor track and community use rooms as well.

With the designs in, the next step for the city is to see what an estimated cost will be.

"We're looking forward to getting that next piece of information in the next couple of months to see, you know, how much it's going to cost to potentially establish a rec district and then how much it would cost to potentially bond and construct a rec center and to see if that's something that the community truly wants to take on."

Crowther says the public is welcome to continue to provide feedback on the subject of this project. There is another public hearing at Rexburg City Hall Wednesday at 6 p.m. A link for the streaming the hearing can be found here.