Princeton ready to go with new community center

Jan. 7—PRINCETON — Thanks to $2.2 million in federal funding, the City of Princeton may break ground on a new Multi-Use Community Center later this year.

The funding was part of the 2023 federal funding Omnibus bill, which included more than $250 million for projects in West Virginia, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., announced earlier this week.

"I would like to give full credit to Sen. Capito for this," Princeton City Manager Mike Webb said. "I greatly appreciate her foresight in pushing this project forward."

Capito visited the city two years ago, took a tour of the new City Hall with Webb and Mayor David Graham and was shown project plans for the rest of the former Dean Company facility off Stafford Drive.

"She was excited about the project and thought it was well worth it as far as the investment in the community," Webb said, adding the total cost will be $4 million.

Sam Lusk, Princeton's economic development director, said the federal money requires a 45 percent match by the city and that will come from $800,000 already set aside for the project and $1 million in bonds.

"Everything is in place to get started," Webb said, with an official groundbreaking possibly by late summer.

"We already have the floor plans," Graham said, adding that the ET Boggess Architect Inc. firm completed the plans, with some tweaks still possible.

Lusk said the center, which will have about 25,000 square feet of space inside the large Dean Company complex beside City Hall, will include three basketball courts, a classroom, a martial arts room and space for various community uses.

Graham said two basketball courts were included in the original plan but another was added, "with the capacity to do indoor soccer on that third court."

The rest of the huge complex will eventually be used to house the Princeton Police and Fire departments.

Webb said the the Dean Company facility has a total of about 280,000 square feet of space.

The company closed in the early 2000s and the city started the process of moving all city government functions to the complex in 2017, with renovations of the company's former headquarters completed for use as a City Hall in the first phase.

"Our plan is to bring first-responders over," Webb said of the total plans for the facility.

"In the coming months we will work with the USDA (U.S. Dept. of Agriculture Rural Development) to submit the appliciations for these funds," Lusk said of the formal requirements. "Once we do that the funds will be distributed in quarter two or quarter three of this year."

Graham said that once work begins it should take about 12 months to complete since the work will be inside.

The structure in place is well built and solid, he added.

Some earthwork around City Hall is part of the project to create an entrance as well as get ready for a courtyard and parking lot for the center.

"We went through Region One Planning and Development to help with the appropriations and we want to thank them," Lusk said. "They are also going to help us with the bond issuance as well."

— Contact Charles Boothe at cboothe@bdtonline.com

Contact Charles Boothe at cboothe@bdtonline.com