A rendering of the proposed Convocation Hall in Harrison Park
By now, you have heard that the Council hopes to build a facility in Harrison Park, just in front of the Doug Will Tennis Center. We started planning the facility to address four main needs:
• A place for our citizens to walk in the wintertime,
• An indoor facility for basketball, gymnastics, volleyball, and other activities,
• Restrooms which would be accessible from Harrison Park and the adjacent Lawn Party Grounds, and
• Better climate control for the DWTC, so that it might be more comfortable when outside temperatures are very warm or very cold.
In our planning process, however, we learned some things. For example, we learned that USDA might be able to finance the facility on favorable terms if were constructed so as to serve primarily as a community center. We have instructed the architects to design a building which can
• Host large groups for dinners, wedding receptions, and meetings,
• Accommodate trade shows of various types, as are so often hosted by the Augusta Expo,
• Serve as a hub for our very successful summer camp program for children and even allow us to expand it, and
• Provide routine medical services and an emergency shelter to people displaced by flooding or other natural disasters.
These revisions will allow us to serve our citizens better. We now describe the facility as a “convocation hall,” and we think it can make Bridgewater an even better place to live.
The initial plans for the proposed convocation hall are shown below.
