It’s full steam ahead for the Shawano Recreation Center’s renovation plans.
Matt Hendricks, the city’s parks, recreation and special project director, said the center will officially close to the public May 17. At that time, they’ll prepare to turn the site over to 8Pine Inc., the construction company that will transform the building and site into a more modern facility.
“Saturday, May 17, is our last day open to the public,” Hendricks said. “After that, city staff will have about two weeks to come in and remove office equipment and other fixtures to use at other sites. We’ll be repurposing as much as possible — including toilets, sinks, lighting.”
Rec center staff will conduct an auction for all of the exercise equipment.
“We have a lot of equipment, some old and some new,” Hendricks said. “We considered sending it all to the (state) surplus auction site, but we chose to sell it to local residents to keep fit and active.”
The auction will be done in house in early May. People will be able to stop by the front desk and place bids. Those with the winning bids will have to pick their items up the week after the center closes.
Auction details will be announced later.
8Pine will be given the keys June 2 and, after that, the building and site are in their hands.
It’s expected the rec center will be closed 10-12 months.
“All memberships will be suspended during that time and will then start up again after we reopen,” Hendricks said.
Just counting the pool and exercise area, the rec center saw 28,000 non-unique visitors in 2024. Unique membership is about 600, a number that has grown significantly the past couple years.
“One reason for that is the insurance reimbursement program that (aquatics coordinator) Tara Kelliher put a lot of time into developing,” Hendricks said. “Most people know about Silver Sneakers, but there are others. Membership is covered by insurance, and we handle all of that for members. They don’t have to turn in any paperwork for reimbursement. We do all of that.”
Hendricks said the second main reason for increased membership is the high-quality staff.
“They do a super amazing job of customer service,” he said. “They really interact well with members.”
This first phase of the renovation project will now include a new racquetball court.
Initially, the existing courts were going to be removed but not replaced until a second construction phase that could be five years down the road.
“With input from members and the city council, we added the racquetball court as an alternative in the bidding for the project, and then decided to go ahead with it in this first phase,” Hendricks said.
The renovation project is funded by a $4.25 million Flexible Facilities Program grant and another $1 million from the city. That $1 million comes from reallocating $275,000 of savings already achieved this year in capital projects, reallocating $525,000 from its 2026 capital project budget to the recreation center and borrowing an additional $200,000 beyond its planned borrowing of $4.5 million for this year.
“What you have before you today is a relatively minimally intrusive way to cobble together the remainder of this funding,” City Administrator Eddie Sheppard told members of the common council April 9.
He said the grant was awarded in the fall when the city was well into its budget process for 2025.
“The way we approached it with staff was, ‘You’re not going to get another opportunity like this,’” he said. “Yes, it’s over budget. We believe, based on the bids, this is the true cost.”
The city was planning to borrow $4.5 million for capital projects in 2025 and $4.7 million in 2026. Sheppard said the city will simply flip the borrowing amounts for the two years, borrowing the larger amount in 2025 to help cover the rec center costs. The city’s total borrowing won’t be affected.
Council members approved the project and associated costs.
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Rec center closing set for May 17
