Split Vote Advances Community Center

Plans for a $7-million community center will proceed at least a step further, a divided City Council decided Monday.

Council members voted 3 to 2 to authorize architects GKK Inc. of Irvine to continue working with design plans for the center, which had been on hold. Construction documents will then be presented to the council, project manager Sondra Evans said.

At a special council meeting Monday, Mayor Frank Fry Jr. and council members Tony Lam and Margie L. Rice voted to continue with the community center plans.

“It’s a much needed building and the service that it will provide are very much needed in the community,” Fry said.

Councilwomen Joy L. Neugebauer and Margaret Shillington voted against the plan.

Shillington said money raised for the center could be put to better use. “I would like to save this money for an emergency,” she said.

Under the plan, the community center would be built at 15th and Monroe streets and feature a 418-seat theater, a banquet hall to seat 500, a central atrium and art gallery.