Discussions are beginning to take place about the possible creation of a recreation center in Cranberry Township for the use of the Cranberry School District and community.
The township’s economic development committee heard a presentation at its monthly meeting Tuesday from Kyle Melat, a Cranberry School Board member who attended school in the district from kindergarten through graduation.
Melat, who is a project manager at Komatsu, has three children who now attend Cranberry schools.
Melat said he wasn’t giving the presentation on behalf of the township, the school district or any other organization, but he said the idea has been discussed casually with the school board and a few other local leaders, and he wanted to bring an initial discussion to the economic development committee as well.
“The idea got started because there isn’t adequate space for basketball, baseball, softball practices, things like that, especially in the winter,” Melat said.
The recreation center could act as a facility for Cranberry School District organizations and their affiliates to be able to hold athletic events, robotics programs and other activities, and athletics organizations could practice in and out of season, Melat said.
As it stands, the school district only has one gymnasium, and Melat noted that Franklin, Oil City, and Clarion all have multiple gymnasiums either in their elementary schools or multiple gyms in their high schools.
The center could also be a hub for robotics and STEM activities, in which Cranberry Superintendent Bill Vonada remarked the district has had “tremendous success.”
In addition, the center could provide a facility for the community to use during certain designated times for activities such as walking and pickleball.
Melat noted that Cranberry Township doesn’t have a YMCA or equivalent facility located in the district, and even though residents have access to other YMCAs in the region, “it’s different from being right next door.”
“If you’re a kid, or you don’t have transportation, you just don’t get there,” he said.
Finally, the recreation center could allow employees, community members and other groups to run programs and events for a fee, when space is available.
Melat said his hope is that if the recreation center were to be built, it would help grow the school district by attracting more students to the district and more people into the community.
He added that he didn’t want the center to compete with already-established area organizations, but hoped it would be an opportunity for collaboration with groups such as the YMCA and UPMC.
“I think the possibilities are endless for what the facility could potentially draw to the township,” Melat said.
That center, which he said is about 39,000 square feet and opened in 2021, was built at a cost of about $4.5 million including its contents, which include three basketball courts, a weight room and fitness center, a track, vaulting, and jumping area, pickleball courts, and batting and pitching cages.
The Shenango center is managed by the school district and its athletic director, although Melat noted that wouldn’t necessarily have to be the case in Cranberry.
“The advantage would be starting to bring in more and more community people, walkers, people hosting birthday parties, things like that,” Neely said. “But I think the real business impact would be in our restaurants, hotels and so forth.”
Two possible locations in Melat’s presentation were on the Cranberry school campus past the track or along Old Salina Road.
Ultimately, Melat remarked, “the biggest hurdle is going to be funding,” and he asked for the economic committee’s feedback on avenues to approach funding and grants.
Some hypothetical sources of funding in Melat’s presentation included the township, school district, state and federal grants and community sponsorships.
Several members of the committee expressed interest in the idea, and the committee spent several minutes discussing potential funding sources and ways in which the center might be able to partner with the community and local organizations and businesses.
Melat said that if he had to choose between a well-supported idea with little funding and a well-funded idea with little support, “I’d pick the well-supported idea. We can figure out the funding.”
Nothing was voted on or decided at the meeting, but the committee thanked Melat for bringing the idea to them for discussion.
In other business at Tuesday’s meeting, township supervisor Matt McSparren said the United State Department of Agriculture had given out grant money to 19 states for rural broadband development, but “the bad news” was that Pennsylvania hadn’t received any of it.
“The good news is that the Oil Region Alliance is in the second stage of applying for grant money for the Hill City area,” he said.
McSparren added that Clintonville, which had originally been one of the areas toward which the grant would go for broadband development, had dropped out, and so “the whole focus of the project will now be Cranberry Township, in Hill City and Rockmere,” he said.
McSparren also said fertilizer prices are still very high for farmers, and hay production in the area is down 50 percent in the first cutting because of the low rainfall.
“Farmers have a couple options. Either we’ll have to have a very good second crop, or they’ll have to buy hay, or they’ll have to get rid of some of their animals,” McSparren said.
And Susan Williams, executive director of the Venango Area Chamber of Commerce, remarked that the chamber was excited to have graduated almost 40 students from the Venango Ready program this year.
