A routine zoning change at Cincinnati council last week puts a long-awaited recreation center on the West Side one step closer to completion.
The Boys and Girls Club of Greater Cincinnati has been trying to build a center in the Villages at Roll Hill for several years. The project had $750,000 in city funding but stalled for a few years until federal stimulus made another $2.25 million possible in the 2021 carryover budget.
CEO Bill Bresser says it will cost $6.5-7 million total and the rest of the money is being raised privately.
"We intend on breaking ground this fall and it'll take about 10 to 12 months to build the building," he said. "So hopefully next school year, 24-25, We'll be open. And I can't wait."
Bresser said they'd never have gotten this far without a couple champions on City Council: Jan-Michele Lemon Kearney and Liz Keating.
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"Something that has been promised we are finally delivering to a neighborhood that has consistently been underfunded and we're really excited to be able to move forward," Keating said as council passed the zoning change.
The center on President Drive will have a gym with a basketball court, a game room, classrooms and separate entrances for teens and kids. Bresser says it's expected to serve 130 kids a day and 300 kids a year — triple the number they're currently serving with programming at the local elementary school.
"What this [facility] will allow us to do is to serve teens, so allow us to go K through 12 just like at our other freestanding sites," Bresser said.
They'll also be able to operate longer hours, expanding from three hours a day during the school year to five hours hours a day, and add summer programming for eight hours a day.
"It's all summer long; it bridges the gap between school years, which is really important," Bresser said. "That's really exciting to get all those kids into our programs with trauma competent staff, doing homework assistance, giving them positive things to do, reinforcing all the things they're learning in school and at home and to build self-sufficient adults."
A nearby resident wrote to the Cincinnati Planning Commission in support of the project.
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"I have lived in the community for over 25 years and raised children here. Now my grandchildren live in this community," Linda Kirkland wrote. "The children in this neighborhood really need a positive place to gather for social, physical and emotional support ... I am very glad to hear the plans for the club are moving forward."
The Boys and Girls Club of Greater Cincinnati is also renovating its center in Covington, and a youth workforce development center is still in the design phase for a site next to the Price Hill facility.
The combined campaign has about $8 million raised so far.
