Dirt for a new Athens recreation center could be moving by fall, with the center complete in 15 to 18 months, officials said.

City Council members approved an ordinance during their regular meeting Monday to provide for the issuance of the 2018 general obligation warrants (notes).

The city went to the bond market to fund the project and one other.

Although the par value, or face value, of the warrants is $19.7 million, they will give the city $20 million to spend, according to City Clerk Annette Barnes. The city will close on the warrant April 24, she said.

The 70,000-square-foot, two-story recreation center with a three-lane walking/running track over at least two basketball courts and a lobby will be built on land near the Sportsplex off U.S. 31, near where the current recreation center is located.

Parks and Recreation Director Ben Wiley told The News Courier before the meeting, “I expect the project to take 15 to 18 months to build, so definitely late next year.”

Mayor Ronnie Marks told The News Courier before the meeting the city sold the entire $20 million in municipal warrants in just about two days.

“That’s real good,” he said.

Proceeds from the sale of the warrants will be used to pay for the recreation center and work on the former Pilgrim’s Pride property off Pryor Street.

Timeline for rec center

Marks said the city is shooting to have the bid packages for the recreation center out to prospective bidders in mid-July.

“Say they responded in 30 days, at the end of August. Then if we accept some of the bids, we will award them in September,” the mayor said. “So we could be moving dirt (at the site) in the fall.”

The question ahead is how many of the three proposed add-ons to the recreation center will the city be able to afford. The possibilities include:

• Building a multi-use field for little league, flag football, soccer and any events that require a sodded green space with lights;

• Adding six tennis courts; and

• Covering the existing outdoor pool so it can be used year-round.

The city will solicit separate bids for the recreation center proper and either two or three of the proposed add-ons, Marks said.

“If the recreation center is too high, we will have to cut alternates (add-ons),” the mayor said. “We will get a base bid for the rec center and then for the multipurpose field and the tennis courts, and we may enclose the pool now or in the very near future.”

He said if the bid for the pool did not come in too high, it could be included.

“If not, we could look at it in the next couple of years,” the mayor said.

Because it costs money to have the architect draw the recreation center and add-ons, council members may decide which add-ons are feasible before seeking bids.

The city already has a recreation center, but the 20,000-square-foot facility was built in 1977 at the Sportsplex, and the mayor and others believe the city has outgrown it. City schools have since bought the building for $950,000 for possible use as a field house.

Bob Gray, senior vice president of Goodwyn, Mills and Cawood Architects of Birmingham, the company drawing the recreation center plan, has said the new recreation center will be “a multigenerational community center, not a basketball gym.”