Avondale residents want bigger recreation center

Avondale residents and supporters plan to petition the city for a bigger recreation center.

Hamilton County Commissioner Warren Mackey and City Councilman Moses Freeman told residents at a community meeting this week that improving the Avondale Youth and Family Development Center is top priority.

"I look at this center as a disgrace, physically," said Freeman. "This is the only center that hadn't been replaced in the city of Chattanooga in the last 10 or 15 years."

He said the building has had the same gym since he was a child -- and he will be 77 this year.

Residents from at least four neighborhood associations, including Avondale, Wheeler Avenue, Churchville and Glenwood, packed the center Monday to discuss the need for more and better space. They asked Mackey and Freeman to support them as they speak to other government officials.

"Most of you know that I'm on the record for saying we need a new center," Freeman said as the group applauded.

Avondale Neighborhood Association President James Moreland said the group members will meet again at 6 p.m. April 20 to discuss exactly what they will request of the City Council concerning the center. Moreland asked for input on whether the group should ask for more space if it can't get a whole new center.

He said they will schedule a meeting with the council after they discuss their requests.

Mackey returned to the center Wednesday with grant writers to tour the facility and consider the possibility of expansion or a new center.

He pointed out vacant houses and buildings near the center and talked about how those properties could be purchased and used for recreational activity.

Mackey said he has seen Avondale facility manager Gerald Perry cry after turning children away from the center because there is no space to accommodate them.

Children who use the Avondale Recreation Center are asked to play outside as adult residents exercise in the gym as part of the Health and Wellness Program on April 8, 2015.

"During the summer you have kids from all over the city, especially the Avondale community, seeking to use the center, and there is no room," Mackey said. "These kids have no other alternative in turns of recreation. They don't have transportation to get out of the community."

Liz Walden, Memorial Hospital's healthy communities and advocacy grant manager, said she has seen how the center is a haven protecting children from danger in the street.

"This is home," she said at the meeting. "This is where they are until it's time to go to sleep. You could have three times the space and it still would be full."

During the school year, children and teens wait outdoors while adults do aerobics because there is not enough room to accommodate both activities. The center has 60 to 70 kids a day, but the gym holds only 40 people.

"It would be the pie in the sky if we could have an area to exercise while they play," said Monica Burke, who also works with the Memorial Wellness exercise program.

People come from as far as Highway 58 and East Brainerd to exercise at the center, she said.

There is a center in Washington Hills near Highway 58 and there's a center in Brainerd. But some people feel more comfortable attending the Avondale Center. Carol Meredith, the instructor, has taught the aerobics class for six years and built a following, Burke said.

Tracy Davis, a Hamilton County Schools teacher who operates the center's education tutoring and literacy program, wants city officials to build a new center.

"We need a functioning work environment to learn, with desk, tables and chairs. Right now all we have is a computer lab with seven computers," she said.

At least 50 students regularly attend tutoring. Many of them read below grade level and need the assistance to catch up academically, she said.

Freeman spoke near the end of Monday's meeting and assured center users of his support.

"You are pleading and I understand your plea," he said. "Every time I've been here this center is in use, and it is in use to its fullest capacity."

Contact staff writer Yolanda Putman at yputman@timesfreepress.com or call 757-6431.