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Numerous officials were on hand Wednesday to celebrate the groundbreaking for the Garrett College Community Athletic and Recreation Center (CARC) on the McHenry campus. The $23 million complex will house two swimming pools and a physical therapy facility run by Garrett County Memorial Hospital, plus a gymnasium with event seating for 2,000 people. The first phase, which is the 32,000-square-foot aquatics center, is to be completed by the fall of 2011. The gymnasium will be in phase two. Senator George Edwards, one of yesterday’s guest speakers, was instrumental in securing $17 million from the state of Maryland for the project. The remaining funds are being provided by the county.
The county commissioners initially voted against the project, but reversed that decision after both an outcry from several thousand residents, and a reworking of the funding plan accomplished by college officials. Pictured at the event, from left, are Edwards; Jerry Zimmerman (who helped rework the funding plan); Commissioner Ernie Gregg; Josephine Gilman (who worked with Zimmerman); Dr. Jeanne Neff, interim president of Garrett College; Dusty Huxford, community partner, Manta Ray Swim League; Wendell Teets, superintendent of Garrett County schools; Linda Sherbin, chairperson of the Garrett College board of trustees; Don Battista, president/CEO of Garrett County Memorial Hospital; Catherine Patterson, GC student representative; David Whale, Grimm Parker Architects; Delegate Wendell Beitzel; Commissioner Fred Holliday; and Chuck Hess, CEO of Hess Construction. Click on the photo to see a conceptual drawing of the new facility, and to view a video of part of the ceremony. Photo by John McEwen.
See the video of the ceremony here (Video Glenn Tolbert).
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