The McCreary Recreation Building in Perry has been in need of some attention, and this year they will be getting quite a bit.

The 35-year-old facility has several needs, including but not limited to the roof, electrical systems, and boilers. At the recent Perry City Council meeting, the Parks and Recreation Department was allocated $200,000 from local option sales tax funds for needed maintenance and a retaining wall for the in-town recreation trail. City Administrator Sven Peterson explains, when they were looking at the budget requests from parks and rec, they noticed several things that needed immediate attention.

This spurred the use of the local option sales tax funds, which Peterson says will allow them to complete several projects on the McCreary Center in 2018. “This is kind of phase one, I would say, of a multi-phase project to reinvest in the rec center and really bring that back to life. It’s a huge point of pride within the community, and I think that we need to be investing in that a little bit more than we have in the past.”

The first project to be tackled will be the roof, which will be divided into two phases this year. Bids for the work on phase one were considered at the Council meeting, with the low bid of $73,393.55 coming from Central States Roofing. Peterson said the roof was a logical first step in the McCreary Center improvements. “This is something that if you go out to the rec center, you can probably notice that it needs some love. There’s some leaks that haven’t been too horrible, but they’re definitely noticeable. So this project will definitely take care of those leaks, and we should be good to go for another 15 or 20 years.”

The first half of the roof project will likely start in early spring, with the second half tackled possibly in late summer. To hear more about the recent Council meeting, listen to Tuesday’s Perry Fareway Let’s Talk Dallas County program at RaccoonValleyRadio.com.