Port Chester has set a Feb. 20 deadline for contractors to bid on a project to revitalize the gymnasium at the Village Hall at 222 Grace Church St. The projected cost of the revitalization can’t be determined until the bids are evaluated but the village has already received a commitment from the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York for $750,000 toward the project’s cost.
The bid package put out by the village says that it wants to upgrade lighting, HVAC systems, and electrical systems, install a new gym floor, construct a building addition for a mechanical room, update plumbing, and install a gym divider door as well as performing other work.
The vision is to turn the gym into a community center that can host a wide range of athletic, academic, theatrical, and recreational programming for residents. The village’s Mayor Luis A. Marino and Village Manager Stuart L. Rabin underscored the desirability of the project and thanked the state representatives for working to obtain state funding.
Marino said that such a space is much needed and will be used to support the Port Chester Youth Bureau’s efforts to coordinate initiatives aimed at engaging at-risk youth, while providing the village with additional gathering and meeting spaces for local cultural, municipal, and community organizations.
According to the Department of Geography at the University of California in Berkeley, the Port Chester Village Hall was constructed from 1938 to 1939. It was funded in part by the Public Works Administration (PWA), which had been founded during the Great Depression to help the country recover from the economic disaster by creating and supporting public works projects that created jobs. The PWA provided $58,725 toward the construction project that had a total cost of $121,763.
