The ribbon was cut Thursday afternoon officially opening the 48 by 80 foot addition to the Centralia Community Youth Center.
The addition was made possible by a $250,000 state grant and $70,000 in other donations.
Greg Sutton of Tech Services first made the board aware of a new grant that was available and plans were put together for the expansion and administered the grant.
Joel Brooks commended Sutton and former Executive Director Herb Williams and others including some large donors who made the project a reality. Brooks added every cent of the building project was spent with local contractors.
Program Coordinator Josh Favors says the addition will mean a lot to the children who use the center.
“We have a gaming room with stuff in that we got through a grant,” Favors said. “We have a library now. We have a larger tutoring room that’s a little bit quieter than trying to tutor in the gym, which is what we had to do for the last couple years. That’s going to help us out a lot. We’ll be renting out the gym and the conference room a little more often for parties and events if you know anybody interested.”
The addition also has two rooms set aside for the food pantry. One holds refrigerated items. The other is for non-perishable goods.
Board President Mel Kelly says there is still more work ahead.
“We’ve talked about, depending on grants that we receive in the future, having a sensory room,” Kelly said. “We do still have to do the heating and air on this side of the building. We also have to replace the heating in the gym, we would like to get cooling. We want to get all of those needs taken care of before we expand anywhere else.”
Kelly says they are also working on getting outside playground equipment. The addition also gives the center more parking and a handicapped accessible entrance.
