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Augusta County delays decision on $12,000 rec‑center concept study to review plans
Summary
The Board agreed to postpone action for two weeks on a $12,000 Balzer Associates concept plan for a proposed 100,000‑sq‑ft recreation center and fields so staff can search for prior plans and refine site options; board members debated sports‑tourism benefits versus competing with private fitness businesses.
Augusta County supervisors postponed consideration of a concept planning contract for a proposed county recreation facility to give staff time to check for prior plans and explore site alternatives.
County staff said Balzer Associates, the county’s on‑call engineering firm, proposed a lump‑sum $12,000 scope to produce base mapping, three to four conceptual layouts for a roughly 100,000‑square‑foot indoor facility with associated parking and multiuse fields, and initial traffic and site assessments. "Their lump sum fee for that is $12,000 to do that planning work," staff told the board.
Board members debated whether the facility should include a conventional fitness center — a concern about competing with private gyms — or focus on sports‑tourism and indoor tournament space. "We're not really looking for a fitness center," staff said; instead, the proposal emphasized indoor courts, an indoor track and multiuse turf fields geared toward weekend tournaments to generate travel tourism that could help offset operating costs.
Several supervisors asked staff to check whether an earlier plan or existing assets (including Beverly Manor property and an existing gym on the Wilson High School site) could be repurposed before committing funds to new concept work. Following that request, the board voted 4–2, with one member absent, to postpone the item two weeks to allow staff to locate any prior plans and provide more detail.
What happens next: staff will search for any prior designs and prepare additional information for the board at the next meeting, per the postponement direction.
