After 10 years of campaigning, Anderson Grove is getting a new community center.
The rural community nestled between Columbus and Caledonia broke ground Monday on its 5,000-square-foot community center. The center is one of eight projects being undertaken by the Columbus-Lowndes Recreation Authority in the coming year thanks to matching $850,000 donations from Columbus and Lowndes County.
Currently, Anderson Grove residents have access to two rooms at the end of the ICS Head Start building on Anderson Grove Road. One of those rooms houses Meals On Wheels, which feeds approximately 60 individuals five days a week. Approximately 10 individuals eat at the center at 11 a.m. each weekday.
Janie Harris, 85, who volunteers at Meals On Wheels, is excited about the potential of a new, bigger center.
“You meet other people in the community who come out and fellowship. (The current center) is not a new place. There are lot of things missing that will be in the new place.”
The old center isn”t in bad shape. The rooms are well heated and cooled, although not through central air. The interior and exterior spaces are clean and well maintained by ICS, which doesn”t pay rent at the community-owned building.
Former District 1 Supervisor and Anderson Grove resident Lardell Shaw says the building, which looks good for having been built in the 1950s, simply isn”t large enough to house ICS and provide the community”s needs, including summer programs for children.
“People out here want to do things and always have to go to town to have their meetings, birthday parties or family reunions,” said Shaw.
He says the community will care for the new center just as it has for the old one.
“We worked hard to get (the current building) back then. We spent our own money and kept it in good shape. We”re a very concerned community of people here who want to progress and move on.”
Broken glass on the ground around the outside of the current community center suggests not everyone is on the maintenance bandwagon. Shaw says plastic windows had to be installed at the center to prevent future vandalism, but doesn”t expect that to be a problem with the new center.
The CLRA will spend $265,000 to erect the new community center, furnish the interior, construct a parking lot and landscape the area.
The building will feature an open area, two break-out rooms, a kitchen area with appliances and two restrooms.
Jason Browne was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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