Background:
The McDowell County Recreation Center is located at the intersection of Academy and West Court Streets in Marion. The current building was built in the mid 1990's, replacing a structure that had previously served as the gymnasium for Marion High School. A swimming pool was built on the site in the early 1980's. The pool experienced significant leaking and featured a diving well that was no longer needed with the removal of the diving boards. In addition, the parking lot and driveway were of poor design with insufficient parking spaces and challenging traffic flow during high-usage events. The former ballfield area featured failing infrastructure.
The Board of Commissioners engaged an architect to study these issues and the recommendation was to implement a phased enhancement of the complex starting with a new, accessible pool, and an improved parking lot. In addition, plans for an improved ballfield complex were developed for when funding is available.
Project Information:
In 2021, the North Carolina General Assembly granted McDowell County $4.5 million for the Recreation Center Improvement Project. Since the funding was inadequate to improve everything on the site, the Board of Commissioners voted to phase in the project with the new swimming pool and parking/driveway portions of the project coming first . The new pool will have competition lanes as before, but will have a zero entry design and water features. The parking lot will add about 30 spaces and a new driveway exit is being built so that traffic will enter on Academy Street and exit on West Court Street. The existing ballfield infrastructure will be removed and the field will be converted to a green space. A new ballfield complex is planned to be built when funding can be secured.
Funding:
The NC General Assembly granted McDowell County $4.5 million for the project. An additional $375,000 grant from the NC General Assembly was directed to the project as well.
Timeline:
The project will be completed in early 2025. The swimming pool will be open for the 2025 swim season.
