New youth center arrives in Groveland

  A week before Christmas, the children of Groveland received a much-anticipated present.

The new Groveland Youth Center arrived late last week in Mary Laveroni Community Park. The 1,440-square-foot modular building will replace a double-wide trailer that has served as the town’s youth center since 1978.
  

“It’s a great asset to the community,” said Tuolumne County Supervisor John Gray, who represents the Groveland area. “It will be used a whole bunch.”

Groveland’s current youth center, at Ferretti Road and Bisordi Street, opened more than three decades ago as one of the first youth centers in Tuolumne County. During the years, it has served thousands of children in the Groveland and Big Oak Flat areas.

According to county documents, the building is in disrepair and has inadequate heating and air conditioning. A new center had been talked about for several years, but funding was a major obstacle.

In July 2006, Tuolumne County was awarded a Special Projects Grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to replace the center with a more-modern one.

That grant money provided a bulk of the project’s $369,891 price tag.
    The building was delivered in three pieces last Thursday, and the roof came in three pieces Friday. Starting early Friday, a crane lifted each section and pieced them together before they were bolted in place.

“By the end of the day, the whole building will be watertight,” Ed Hoag, facilities manager for Tuolumne County, said Friday morning at the construction site.

Work on the project, including installing siding and pouring concrete sidewalks, was expected to continue over the weekend.

Hoag said it is unknown exactly when the center will be up and running. A ribbon-cutting ceremony is tentatively scheduled for Feb. 16.

“This will be a great upgrade,” he said. “They now have extra square footage and it’s energy efficient.”

Gray said the park is the “perfect spot” for the center as it has a skate park, basketball courts and library all nearby.

A lease agreement to place the center in the park has been approved between the county and the Groveland Community Services District, the agency that operates the park.

The county will run the youth center, which was supposed to have arrived last month. Delays included rainy and snowy weather along with waiting for the building’s special-ordered metal roof.

The center will match the building next door, which houses the Groveland Yosemite Gateway Museum and Library, all the way down to the shade of green on the roof.

"We wanted to make sure it looked like it belonged in the park,” Hoag said.