Ground Broken For Moundsville/Marshall Co. Indoor Rec Center
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MOUNDSVILLE — As the ground was broken on Cedar Avenue in Moundsville for the upcoming Moundsville/Marshall County Indoor Recreation Center, ground already was being moved on the project.
As city, county and construction officials got up to speak during Wednesday afternoon’s ceremony, they sometimes had to pause as a dump truck carrying new piles of earth rumbled behind the group.
“We can’t hold up progress,” Moundsville City Manager Rick Healy said with a smile.
That progress already being witnessed on the former Sanford Elementary School site gave those in attendance Wednesday an even better feeling. The ceremony wasn’t just about hope, but in celebrating a project already under way.
The $4.9 million facility will sit in almost the geographic center of Moundsville, giving families all around the center the opportunity to walk and bike to enjoy its amenities. And Healy said there were be many.
The center will house two high-school sized basketball courts that can also be used for volleyball and each court can convert into three pickleball courts. One court will include two drop-down batting and pitching cages. There will be a two-lane track around the perimeter with pull-out bleachers on each side.
It also will include a community room that Healy envisions doubling as a party room.
The benefits will extend beyond physical health, Healy said, but fiscal health as well. He envisions travel tournaments in multiple sports coming to the facility when it opens, planned for April 2027.
“Those tournaments will do what? Bring people to Moundsville,” Healy said. “There will be people coming that will stay in our hotels. They’ll eat in our restaurants and they’ll fill up their cars in our gas stations. It becomes an economic boon not only for Moundsville, but for Marshall County.”
The seed of this idea, Healy said, was planted by Moundsville Councilwoman Ginger DeWitt. She had been to a travel tournament in Parkersburg with her grandchildren and saw the facilities down there. She believed Moundsville could have such resources of its own.
DeWitt was there Wednesday to stick her own ceremonial shovel in the dirt. She said that, while she may have had the idea, it took an army of good people to get the project online. DeWitt was overjoyed to see it begin.
“I can’t put it into words what it’s like,” she said. “I just feel like, my time on council, everything I wanted to do is complete now.
“I think it’ll be a very big boost,” she added. “I think it’ll be utilized a lot. I think it’ll be a big boost economically and I think it’ll be a big boost for the kids who need something to do and a place for them to exercise.”
Healy also acknowledged it took a lot of different groups to get the project rolling, especially with funding. He thanked the Marshall County Commission, which injected $1.5 million into the project, the Vawter Family Foundation, which donated $500,000 and WVU Medicine, which gave $25,000. The majority of the funding will come from a 1% municipal sales tax established years ago.
This facility adds to the many other areas in the city of Moundsville focused on recreation, said Moundsville Mayor Randy Chamberlain. Those include East End Park and the Four Seasons Pool and Recreation Center and Valley Fork Park, a hub for outdoor team sports.
“I dare say this, and I could be proven wrong, but I do not believe that any community in West Virginia of our size has as much area devoted to recreation as Moundsville does. Council has always been eager to do these kinds of projects to give back to the community, and this is just another example of that.”