Iola Mayor Jonathan Wells confirmed the city has been in talks with Allen Community College about a possible partnership with the school for a recreational center, however talks are in the preliminary stage. In fact, the school and the city have only had one meeting on the subject.
Talks are pretty preliminary at this point but all parties would like to collaborate if possible, Wells said on Monday. Everyone is in the Dream Big phase right now. It is more brainstorming. We are waiting a bit on both sides to get a little more concrete in our plans and timelines and then the city will probably have a much more realistic idea about the cost benefits, usages of the buildings, etc.
The possible partnership was acknowledged a few weeks ago when Brian Counsil, who serves as vice president for finance and operations at the college, said the schools president, John Masterson, had a meeting with city officials in July.
ACC has been entertaining the idea of building a new activity center.
The school formed an eight-member committee and held its first meeting on July 10.
At that meeting, Counsil said they discussed what features they wanted the new building to have.
Basically, all we decided at the meeting (July 10) was what kinds of bells and whistles we want this building to have and our wants and needs. We talked about possible donations and tossed around several ideas, Counsil said. But we still havent even discussed a budget. That will become much clearer when we invite a design/build company in for our next meeting, who will show us what they can build for us. We also discussed possible partnership opportunities. We just want a building that better serves our students and student athletes.
ACC built its current activity center in 1985 and added a fitness center to the complex in 1989.
The school is set to hold a board of trustees meeting next week.
