Mountain Home scraps community center plans, starts over

Teya Vitu//January 29, 2016//

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Mountain Home is starting from scratch with its 12-year quest to build a community center.

The two-member Western Elmore County Recreation District board of directors on Jan. 28 formally canceled a construction contract to build a 25,000-square-foot, $4.2 million that newly seated board member and President Art Nelson described as a “Taj Mahal.”

Nelson wants to move forward with a more modest structure to fit a $3 million budget.

“What we’re going to try to do is build a building we can afford and still have money left over,” Nelson said.

The previous WECRD board was voted out of office in November as only $40,000 of a pledged $800,000 community had been raised for what was originally a $5.1 million community center. Nelson said the design was “value engineered” down to remove amenities such as basketball hoops, a locker room and ceiling fans.

Nelson was elected to the board in November and seated on Jan. 5. He and board vice president Judy Mayne formally canceled the construction contract with Kreizenbeck Construction of Boise on Jan. 28.

The new community center may be a prefabricated steel building or it may be the renovation of an existing building in Mountain Home.