South Brunswick Community Center set for renovations

Work may begin in September on building in Woodlot Park.

By: Paul Koepp
   Improvements to the township Community Center in Woodlot Park are set to start in September and could be done by next spring, Township officials said Tuesday.
   The Township Council approved an ordinance Tuesday authorizing the township to use $1 million in county grants for the project, which will add a new gym, more classroom and office space, and a new heating and air conditioning system to the 29-year-old facility on New Road.
   That amount brings the renovation’s budget to $2 million, including $1 million that was borrowed for the project by the council in 2005.
   Jimmy Dumas Architecture, of Somerset, has come up with a design that "captures the essence of what we were looking for," Councilman Joe Camarota, liaison to the Recreation Advisory Board, said Tuesday. The project should go out to bid for construction within the next two months.
   The project will more than double the size of the Community Center, from 9,470 square feet to 21,230 square feet. It will add on to the current gym and give it a full-size, regulation basketball court that’s 84 feet by 50 feet.
   In recent years, there has been so much demand for gym space for school and township activities that some events have had to be cancelled, Mr. Camarota said. The new gym will help address that, he said.
   The renovation will also give the building, which opened in 1978, a much-needed "face-lift," he said.
   Mr. Camarota said that during planning for the renovation, board members visited other towns in the area with much larger and more expensive recreation centers. Even if the township eventually builds a bigger facility, there will always be uses for the updated Community Center, he said.