Harrison Elementary School students get set for new northwest Cedar Rapids rec center

CEDAR RAPIDS - Harrison Elementary School students got a firsthand look Thursday at where the city's $4.4 million northwest Cedar Rapids recreation center will go.

It's going right next door in what now is a parking lot on the north side of the school.

City and school officials held a ceremony in the parking lot to celebrate the start of the design process for the new recreation center. It is replacing the Time-Check Recreation Center that was ruined in the Flood of 2008 and since has been demolished.

At the event, school officials had some students encircle the parking lot so their classmates could visualize exactly where and how big the building will be. Construction starts next summer, and the center opens in the summer of 2016.

Sven Leff, the city's parks and recreation director, told the students they will enter the recreation center's north-facing front door off what now is M Avenue NW, and they will find a game area off the lobby, a big gymnasium - much bigger than the one in the school - on the right and a big activity room and smaller activity room on the left.

'We can't wait to get going,” Leff said about the coming construction.

Cedar Rapids schools Superintendent Dave Benson spoke as if teaching an elementary class, and he told the 120 or so students in attendance they will get the chance to watch as the new building goes up. Benson said he hoped teachers would incorporate the experience into some of their lessons, particularly in math class.

Already, students have drawn pictures of what they want the building to look like.

The school district is providing the land for the recreation center for $1, Benson said.

City Council member Ann Poe, who told the students she once attended Harrison Elementary School, said the council picked the Harrison site after 'twists and turns” that had the city consider and reject several other sites.

Poe said the recreation center is the final city project to replace its flood-damaged buildings. She called it 'one of the wonderful milestones” for the city's flood recovery.