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ELKINS -- The renovation project at the Phil Gainer Community Center has been completed, as the final step of making the entire facility fully climate-controlled was recently finished.
"I'm grateful that city officials recognize the value that the Phil Gainer Community Center holds in Elkins and Randolph County," PGCC director Chris Lee told The Inter-Mountain Tuesday. "They recognized that this project was vital to ensuring that the facility is the best it can be for the people that we serve.
"I think of this project as a long-term commitment to our community that would not have happened without community buy-in and support from our city officials."
The new HVAC system will allows the center to host events it couldn't in the past, especially during the hot summer months.
"I'm happy with the results of the HVAC installation because it simply makes the Phil Gainer Community Center a better space for the many families and organizations in the community who utilize it," Lee said.
"With the lack of air conditioning we had in the past, we were only effectively operating for four months out of the year," he said. "When it began to heat up in May, the facility became less useful to our community until it cooled down again in October. It's always been a priority that the PGCC is here to serve our community and we were unable to do that year-round until now."
Lee said that word of all the upgrades is already filtering throughout the community, and because of that, demand for use of the center is already on the rise.
"We are already seeing tangible results with our calendar filling up in months where it historically has not," he said. "We are already starting to attract new summer banquets and other formal events like weddings, which we could not have previously accommodated without air conditioning.
"In the past we were losing approximately a third of our potential revenue because we were practically closed down for four months out of the year."
Other than the HVAC upgrades, the facility also received a new roof on one portion of the building, new energy efficient windows, new lights and a new drop ceiling in the lobby, meeting room and entry way into the gymnasium.
"With the completion of this project we are both better serving the community, and taking steps toward achieving the Phil Gainer Community Center's true revenue potential," Lee said. "And it is that revenue that will allow us to offer free programming for our local youth, which is a very important part of what we're doing here at the center."
In 2014, Elkins City Council voted to purchase the former National Guard Armory for $200,000. After its purchase by the city, the facility was renamed the Phil Gainer Community Center.
Then in 2019, City Council conveyed the Phil Gainer Community Center to the Elkins Building Commission in order to issue bonds up to $750,000 to pay for renovations at the facility.