Pleasantville Opens Long-Awaited Recreation Center
Five years after Pleasantville had a recreation center, the village opened its latest facility Saturday afternoon during an official ribbon cutting ceremony.
Located on Marble Avenue in the same building where the Pleasantville Volunteer Ambulance Corps was formerly housed, the new facility includes an office for department employees, a kitchen and an open activities room.
Recreation Department Superintendent Linda Bellofatto said she was excited what the new center could bring to the village. After moving out of Library Hall on Bedford Road in late 2007 because of flooding, the department operated on the third floor of Village Hall. The facility will provide more flexibility for what the department can offer.
“It’s long overdue for the community, not us but for the community,” Bellofatto said. “…For us as a department it allows us to do a lot of different programming ideas. We’re looking to do an extended day care program in the summer so it gives us a lot of opportunities.”
The process from the start of the bidding to last Saturday took about nine months, she said. In that time there were several different layouts, but it took coordination from the Recreation Advisory Board and the village board to get the project done, Bellofatto said.
Mayor Peter Scherer said he thought the facility was outstanding, though it isn’t everything the village would have liked. A bigger space would have been ideal.
“In a perfect world we wish we had a much bigger room than this,” Scherer said. “It would be great that a lot of community events that have to go somewhere else could stay in Pleasantville. The economics of the world the way they are, we needed to work within a tight budget and this felt like a good opportunity and we seized it.”
Trustee Mindy Berard, who also attended the ribbon cutting ceremony, remembered bringing her children to recreation programs at Library Hall. Once that building was shuttered, she noticed how important it was to have a facility that children of all ages can use.
“It’s woven into the community and to not have that for the youth, it was such a void,” Berard said. “So I feel like we have filled this void and once again people can start to weave their memories with the recreation programs that they’re involved in.”
Currently, the recreation center is holding 14 winter activities that include arts and crafts, music and cooking. It also has adult programs such as yoga, Zumba and Pilates, among other classes.
As spring approaches, Bellofatto said the department is set to expand activities. She also said that the center could be rented out to anyone interested in holding a birthday party or other social events. Renting the room could generate extra revenue.
“It’s not primarily a revenue producer,” Scherer said. “We’re confident that the additional programs we’ll be able to run will fund the cost of the renovation of the building and we’re also optimistic we can generate a little bit of revenue renting the building out, which is another means to helping support the overall program.”
The village board awarded the $128,595 bid to Peter Camilli & Sons of Pleasantville last year to do the work.
