Officials broke ground Tuesday on the new South Davis Recreation Center, marking the beginning of the end of the Bountiful "bubble," the nickname bestowed on the old rec center near 200 West and 400 North because of its signature white-domed swimming pool cover.
"If people call [the new facility] their community rec center, I'll be happy," Bountiful Mayor Joe Johnson said, gripping a ceremonial shovel. "It's because of the people who voted for this - and the people who will use it 10, 20, 30 years down the road - that we are getting a new rec center. Once people see it, they'll forget all about the bubble."
The new 160,000-square-foot facility won't debut until late 2006. But once it is completed, patrons will have their choice of three swimming pools, a new ice rink, jogging tracks, two gymnasiums, a climbing wall and - in the summer - an outdoor water attraction.
To generate funding for the nearly $20 million project, Bountiful joined with Centerville, North Salt Lake, Woods Cross, West Bountiful and the Davis County School District. The property-tax increase to build and operate the center barely survived - by 249 votes - a special election in August 2004.
Johnson said some residents worried that the Bountiful "brand" would be lost in the joint project. But he said the new center "would not have been possible" without the surrounding communities.
"We've always thought of this as our rec center anyway," said West Bountiful Mayor Carl Martin.
While patrons and officials eagerly await the new center, the old facility will remain open throughout construction. The bubble will come down - as it does every summer - in the next few weeks but won't disappear from the Bountiful landscape until next year.
"There was some talk about opening it in phases, but that would have meant shutting it down in phases," said Dennis Forbush, project manager for Centerville-based Hogan & Associates construction company. "That would have been impossible, given the schedule of events that go on here."
Forbush said he expects to start work in the northeast quadrant of the new site plan in the next few weeks. The ice rink will be the first to go up.
Architect Brent Tibbles of Salt Lake City-based VCBO Design said the new facility will have a "lantern effect" because of the large amount of glass throughout.
"It will be something that will be visible at all times of the day and night," he said, noting one of the building's distinguishing characteristics will be its openness.
"For instance, you can see down into the gymnasiums and swimming pools from the jogging track above," he said.
But will "the lantern" find its way into the Davis County vernacular the way "the bubble" has?
"I doubt it," Johnson said. "It's been called the bubble for so long, I wouldn't be surprised if that didn't stick."
lorib@sltrib.com
