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ZEBULON - Kiwanis of Pike County met on Thursday, March 16, 2023 at the Pike County Parks and Recreation Authority (PCPRA) Community Center located at 603 Twin Oaks Road in Williamson to get a tour of the facility and find out what changes have taken place at Parks & Rec.

The facility has come a long way from the slab of concrete with a roof surrounded by grass. Today, the facility is open with a ton of rooms for meetings, staff, and community use along with a kitchen and a ton of parking spaces outside. Chris Childress, Chairman of the PCPRA, gave the presentation to Kiwanis members.

Director Larry Moss was gathering tarps and needed supplies to cover the fields because rain is in the forecast for Friday night into Saturday morning, but the parade and the games are going to go ahead with the help of volunteers on Friday and Saturday.

Saturday, March 18 is opening day for baseball and softball at the Pike County Parks & Recreation Authority. There are about 70 teams for baseball and softball and several soccer teams that will be included in Saturday’s event. There will probably be 80 trailers or more in the parade that will come through downtown Zebulon on the way to the Rec fields.

Setup for the parade is around 7:30 a.m. at the schools. They will leave the schools at 9 a.m. First pitch will be at 10:30 a.m.

Childress told how this concrete slab with a roof wasn’t used for a lot, but a Master Plan was drawn up to make a Community Center with rental space and a place for admin for the park. PCPRA wanted to offer something to the community for community events as well as Zumba and Line Dancing. A Daddy-Daughter Dance was held there not very long ago that sold out quickly. Early voting will also be held here.

The plans for this Community Center began about two years ago. There was money collected in Impact Fees that needed to be spent, and PCPRA held onto that money and spent it all at once to help make this building a reality with the help of the Pike County Board of Commissioners providing backing for an $850,000 loan from United Bank. The entire facility cost a little over $1 million to build.

Building started out a year ago. Childress praised McLeRoy’s work as the contractor on this project. The building is about 6,000 square feet and contains a TV in the main room that was donated by Pike Soccer and other TV’s in the facility that were donated by SDTV. Parking is a “massive plus here,” and he said that he hopes this help get most or all of the vehicles off of the side of the road at the soccer complex.

He emphasized working with various entities in the county to make this facility a reality. “We’ve done the best we could with what we have,” Childress said.

If you would like to help with putting out tarps and preparing for rain on Friday or help pick the tarps up and prepare the fields for play on Saturday, you can get more information from the Pike County Parks & Recreation Authority Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/PikeCoRec.