Gym restoration nearly complete at ACK Civic Center

KEESEVILLE | Every square foot of the new gymnasium floor at the Ausable, Chesterfield Keeseville Civic Center shines. New paint marks basketball, volleyball and pickleball courts. The gym is just one of several key restoration projects nearing completion at the former Keeseville High School, a 55,000-square-foot brick edifice that commands a place and presence from the hill on Main Street. Its long history is both grand and familiar. Bids to paint the walls in the gym are out and will likely come in next week, said Bruce Garcia, co-chair and one of the founding members of the Friends of the ACK (Ausable, Chesterfield, Keeseville) Civic Center, the non-profit group formed about five years ago to design and activate a restoration plan. "We have a bid out right now for painting the gym, the bids are going to be back in the next week," Garcia said in a recent interview with The Sun. "We've made a lot of progress in the last few years. One of the things we did is get a bunch of volunteers together to tear up the gym old floor, which saved about $16,000. It's been a real labor of love for a lot of people." James King, president and co-chair of the friends group, pushed toward a grass-roots restoration effort after a proposed $4.6 million for town restoration failed a referendum vote in 2018. The core group of community volunteers never gave up. "The gym floor is all striped," King said. There are different colored lines for basketball, volleyball and pickleball. It's going to be a community place with many uses to it," he told The Sun. "The new heating system is in, and we put new backboards up. There's a lot of interest in the civic center now," he added. "We have a grant to refinish the restrooms. They have to be completed before we can use the gym. We are replacing the fixtures to retain the historic look of the building. The grant is hung up in state offices, but it will go out to bid once that comes in." Garcia said the friends group is looking at grant now that would provide new equipment for the gym. "Even outside the gym, we've made a lot of progress. It's been a real community effort," Garcia said. Decades of memories still hover in those halls. The corridors were framed by historic bricklayers of Keeseville who knew, in 1936, the intricate details of their craft. "You know the building was actually completed in 1936 and it functioned as the high school until 1972. A good number of people attended that high school and graduated from that high school," Garcia said. "The Keeseville Alumni Association saw the building when they came back this summer, and every comment we heard was positive. It's been a really a cooperative effort between the town and our not-for-profit. We've worked extremely well together," Garcia said. Town of Ausable Supervisor Tim Bresett entirely agrees. "We're going to being to opening the gym later this fall, in time for basketball. That's the intent," he said. "The only thing we have left to do is scrape and paint the walls. "The heating system has been installed, the whole lower level is nearing completion, and we have a couple more tenants coming on line in the next few months, so that's looking good." The next big project could be supported by state funding. "We have applied for Round VIII of Restore New York for windows and doors," Bresett said. "We do have a few projects in the building with funding already secured." Besides the restoration of restrooms, grants are in place to build an accessible lift for stairs. "When we complete that work, we're going to the upstairs. To make it more accessible, we're applying for a grant for the elevator. We're going to be starting that process in the next couple weeks." Moving projects from inception to completion has been an incredible process, Garcia said. "I believe this is going to be a real catalyst for the community in Keeseville and our towns. We have new businesses moving into the Civic Center and different activities looking to go in there. It's going to be something that brings community together." Preservation, Garcia said, means so much in terms what it gives back to the community. Anyone who wants to find out more can contact the Town of Ausable to see if any of the next projects might need volunteer assistance.

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Gym restoration nearly complete at ACK Civic Center

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