Orchard Closer To Building Community Center

Orchard’s new community center is beginning to take shape.

While a contract has not been signed yet, some decisions on the outside structure have been made, according to Orchard Young Men’s Club treasurer Nate Schwager.

“We’re looking at building roughly an 80 foot by 100 foot building with 16-foot sidewalls,” Schwager said.

As for designs, OYMC has not decided on one yet and is willing to hear ideas from people.

“We’re open to design ideas, too. If somebody wants to see us put something in there that we can make work, we’re sure willing to listen” he said. “We have had a couple ideas come up, but it’s just a matter of getting everything on paper right now.”

The idea to build a community center has been a goal for OYMC for the past few years, but it has been a long time in the making for the Orchard community.

“The idea has been talked about for as long as I can remember,” Schwager said. “I can remember it was being discussed as a kid, so, I mean, the idea has been going around town for a long time. As far as it being a goal in the Orchard Young Men’s Club, that’s just been here in the last couple years.”

For OYMC, having a venue for Orchard to host larger events has been an important aim.

“When we formed here a couple years ago, we just kind of sat around and set some goals for ourselves,” Schwager said. “And, the one big goal that we all had was to build a community center for the town that was big enough to hold big events like wedding dances and just some bigger events that we can’t currently.”

According to Schwager, the Orchard Community Center will have a large area for conventions and wedding dances, as well as a meeting room, kitchen and bathrooms.

Since the demolition of the former American Legion building, OYMC has cleaned up the area into an empty lot, but has not signed any contracts to start construction yet.

In order to make this dream a reality, the club has started getting bids for materials and labor and has also been raising money through donations and fundraisers.

So far, it has one bid in and is getting another one.

“One of them is Orchard Lumber, they’re throwing a bid out to provide the materials for the project. And whether that’s $150,000 or $300,000, I don’t know yet,” Schwager said. “But then, we had another bid from a company that’s for materials and labor.”

Once OYMC members figure out the bids, they will be able to know what they need for donations and how to proceed, he said.

Currently, they are having a golf cart raffle, and they will have other raffles, such as Ribfest in September and an annual ugly sweater party. Members have also received donations from people all over, as well as several supportive local businesses.

Thanks to these raffles and donations, OYMC has raised about $50,000 so far, according to Schwager.

Until the club gets the bids in, it’s hard to know how much more will be needed, but he guessed it to be in the $350,000 to $400,000 range.

With Orchard Celebration Days coming to a close at the end of July, Schwager said they tried to give everyone a break, but the club will sit down as a group and figure out how to proceed.

“We’re going to try and look at some larger things here in the coming months – looking at writing some grants and stuff like that,” he said. “And then once we have a firm bid on everything, we know what we need to go after. But, I think we’re going to be a lot more aggressive here in the coming months of trying to get this thing done.”

Even though there isn’t a set completion date, Schwager and other members are determined to get the Orchard Community Center constructed as soon as possible.

“It’s just the time frame is what’s in question,” he said. “But, if everybody steps up and supports us and we can get some larger donations, this thing’s going to get done sooner than later.”

The center will be an exciting addition to Orchard that OYMC is not going to give up on.

“It’s been something that’s been talked about for a long time, and it just hasn’t gotten done,” he said. “And, I think we’ve got a group of people now that are committed to making sure that it does.”

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