Community center project breaks ground
The shovels dig in as ground is broken for renovation of Bentworth Community Center. Assembled for the ceremony Wednesday are, from left, building committee capital campaign honorary co-chairs Sara Greenlee and Lisa Stout-Bashioum, architect Ken Kulak, library board of trustees president Yvonne Baker and library board secretary Judith McCarty.
Bentlyeville Public Library board president Yvonne Baker welcomes community members who gathered Wednesday at the Main Street library for the groundbreaking ceremony for renovations to Bentworth Community Center. More than $500,000 in local donations was raised to help fund the project.
Judith McCarty, right, welcomes Diane Ambrose, director of the Washington County Library System, to the groundbreaking ceremony for renovations to Bentwoth Community Center. McCarty is the secretary of the Bentlyville Public Library board.
Project architect Ken Kulak, right, shares details of his design for renovations to Bentworth Community Center with honorary co-woman of the building committee Sara Greenlee, left, and president of the library board Yvonne Baker. Baker hosted a groundbreaking ceremony at the library building Wednesday.
BENTWORTH – The first step of Phase I of the Bentworth Community Center project has been taken.
Ground was ceremonially broken Wednesday morning in front of the center along Bentleyville’s Main Street. The building, usually the home of Bentleyville Public Library and Bentworth Senior Citizens Center, will undergo an extensive renovation that has temporarily displaced both of those operations.
The project has been percolating in the minds of civic leaders for a number of years, but it didn’t seriously take form until two years ago. The plan is less grandiose but more cost-effective than it was originally.
“Initially, this was a $3 million, pie-in-the-sky project,” said Yvonne Baker, president of the capital campaign committee and president of the library’s board of trustees. “It was scaled back after a new board and a new architect came in.”
Kulak Design Co. of Monongahela is the architect and TBI Contracting of McKeesport will handle construction. Phase I is slated to cost $825,800.
Plans call for the lower level to have a larger kitchen and more usable space for the senior center; the main level to have more space for the library and space for a new entity, the Bentleyville Historical Society; and the addition of a front lobby connecting the two levels. New siding and finish are planned for the exterior.
Ken Kulak, head of the architectural firm, said he expects the three organizations to move in “by February.” For now, the senior center is operating at the Knights of Columbus Hall and the library in the former Fairpoint Communications building.
Kulak said cooperation among involved parties is why the project is heading toward fruition. “This has been one of the most challenging projects budget-wise that I’ve been involved with,” he added. “It took a team effort.”
Sara Greenlee, honorary co-woman of the building committee, said “I’m very proud what we’re coming out with. It was a give-and-take effort.”
The existence of phase I means a phase II is planned, which will transpire as funds become available. Additional parking, landscaping around the building and installing an elevator or chair lift for the front lobby area are the primary focuses of that stage. Baker said her committee will continue to seek grants and donations for subsequent work.
The project, Baker said, has drawn $1.175 million in grants, pledges and donations. That includes funding from the Washington County local share account. Amazingly, she said, about half of that $1.175 million is from local donations. Kulak, the architect, was equally amazed.
“The community had to be commended for its fundraising efforts,” he said. “This is from their own pockets. I’ve been doing projects for 26 years and this is one of the biggest community efforts I’ve seen.
“It’s part of that team effort.”