Danville parks director urges technical planning after visits to regional rec centers

Tommy Burton, Danville director of Parks and Recreation, told the Danville City Commission on March 10 that a series of recent site visits to regional recreation centers sharpened staff recommendations for any new local facility and that staff will return with more narrowly defined technical scope and partnership options.

Burton said the delegation visited about 11 recreation centers in the region — including Morristown Landing (Tenn.), Georgetown, Bowling Green and Madisonville — to study facility design, staffing models, membership mixes and revenue strategies.

The presentation matters because the commission is weighing whether to invest in a larger multiuse recreation center and/or upgrades to local pools and gyms. Burton said design choices such as open, single-level layouts, multipurpose rooms and retractable pool roofs materially affect operating costs, staffing needs and the revenue the facility can generate.

Burton summarized what staff learned from the visits: older…