Quincy to look for funding for indoor recreation facility project

QUINCY — Quincy city officials will be looking for funding options in 2023 to build an indoor recreation facility. Quincy City Council members directed city employees to start looking for money for the project on a 6-0 vote during the regular meeting Tuesday.

With no discussion, council members decided to look for funding to build a facility of approximately 143,000 square feet, the largest of the four options presented to the council in late 2021. When it’s completed the Quincy Field House will be located in a currently-undeveloped section of Lauzier Park, just off 13th Avenue Northwest.

City Administrator Pat Haley said in a later interview that preliminary plans for the project included the option of building the facility in phases or all at once.

‘“They chose the full buildout option,” Haley said. “The council decided they didn’t want to phase it.”

Quincy Parks and Recreation Director Russ Harrington said in a later interview that the field house would be part of a larger project of both indoor and outdoor recreation facilities in the park.

“It’s about 30 acres that we’re going to develop out there,” Harrington said.

The estimated cost is about $23 million. Haley said that includes some accommodation for inflation.

“We have about half of (the funding) in the budget,” Haley said. “Now we need to come up with the other half.”

City officials will be looking for private as well as state and federal funding, he said, and at possibly funding a portion of the project through a bond.

“We’ll be looking for everything that we can,” Harrington said.

The new facility would have room to accommodate four fields for 7-on-7 soccer and two fields for 9-on-9 soccer. Harrington said it would be about the size of a football field.

Two basketball courts would be end to end, and would have markings for basketball, volleyball and pickleball. The basketball courts would have bleachers, but there would be no bleachers on the soccer-football field, Harrington said.

Over time, the space also could be used for community events or possibly a winter market, Harrington said.

“It’s not just for sports,” he said.

But that would require additional - and removable - flooring to protect the turf on the fields, he said.

Haley said he doesn’t expect the project to start in 2023.

“Unless a miracle comes from heaven,” he added.

When it is completed it has the potential to make Quincy attractive to groups who want to put on year-round sports tournaments, among other things, he said.

“It’ll put Quincy on the map,” Haley said.

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at education@columbiabasinherald.com.