BUCKHANNON – The Stockert Youth and Community Center board hopes to arrange a large public meeting at the beginning of August to give the community a chance to provide input on the proposed design for the new multipurpose building.

Buckhanon City Council was presented with the plans for the new multipurpose building during a meeting in June, where council members decided to receive more community feedback before officially approving the design. The SYCC board met Thursday, July 7 to formulate a plan to gather as much feedback as possible.

“There was some sentiment on council that now that we have this final outline, this final drawing, that we needed to get some public input to see if it answers the needs of the public, since it will be public money that’ll be funding the bulk of it,” city recorder Randy Sanders said. “Councilman [C.J.] Rylands led that discussion, so I think the ball is in the court of a joint effort by this board and council to make those meetings or a general public meeting happen.”

One suggestion was to send representatives from council and the board to various local groups and organizations, but Sanders didn’t think that would be the most effective option.

“I feel that would be very difficult, particularly this time of year where most of these organizations are pretty thin with their memberships because there are a lot of vacations,” Sanders said. “To get on their agendas is a bit difficult too, because most of these organizations that have robust programs — I’m thinking of Rotary — they have their programs planned for three, four or five months in advance, so for us to interrupt that would be difficult.”

Instead, Sanders proposed a meeting at the Public Safety Complex for any community member who wishes to offer input on the new building.

“We can go to every organization and ask them to appoint at least one member of their organization — the Rotary, the Lions Clubs — and ask them to come to our meeting and to listen to a presentation,” Sanders said. “We’ll have Mr. [Micahel] Mills present, and the public that is interested will have a chance to give input.”

Amby Jenkins, Director of Finance and Administration for the City of Buckhannon, said interest rates will most likely go up in September and a final design will need to be determined to apply for an appropriate loan.

“Amby says she checked with the USDA, and right now the rate for the loan we’d have to take out was at 3.25 percent,” Sanders said. “That would be good until around September, so we want to get a meeting scheduled for earlier in August.”

The board also tabled an agenda item to reduce the frequency of SYCC board meetings from monthly to quarterly until plans for the new building are complete.