The Jackson County Chamber of Commerce conducting a public survey on the proposed community center at the old Fox Middle School.
The Chamber’s President John Deane said posters with QR codes and survey boxes have been placed all over the county for people to fill out. Deane said receiving community feedback is important as the center would be a community asset.
“So the chamber of commerce felt that the best way to begin this process of sorting this out was to do a community survey to ask what should happen to the old Fox Middle School Building,” Deane said. “And the concept that we have put before the community is that the opportunity here is to create a community center.”
Deane said the chamber will be accepting surveys through the middle of August. Deane said the chamber has already received lots of feedback, one week into accepting surveys.
“Just in the first week alone, for example, we had 58 electronic surveys and a similar number of paper surveys as well,” Deane said. “So we are anticipating receiving data from hundreds of citizens in Jackson County, and we are widely publicizing the availability of the survey and encouraging folks to engage.”
Deane said some of the options on the survey are having a branch of the YMCA, adding a library, pickleball courts, and other various forms of physical activities. Deane said the idea of the community center is to offer multiple options.
“With at 21,000 square feet, just taking the YMCA as an example, we would still have the majority of the square footage available for other activities,” Deane said. “So it’s doubtful that there will just be one activity in there. There’s gonna be multiple ways in which we could put the building to good use.”
Deane said anyone who completes a survey will receive an invitation to a town hall meeting to further discuss the community center. Deane said the town hall meeting would happen sometime in the fall, should the chamber receive the Three-Star Grant to begin working with an architect.
