St. Clair County Arena converted to address pandemic needs

Special to The Tribune

ODENVILLE – The St. Clair County Arena will be converted to meet the community’s needs during the coronavirus pandemic.

Several officials throughout St. Clair County met with architects, grant writers and construction managers at the St. Clair County Arena recently to coordinate an initial vision. A $1 million grant through ADECA and the state was awarded recently to St. Clair County to help address pandemic needs throughout the county. Local officials are working closely with the St. Clair County Emergency Management Agency to put together a plan that will best serve the citizens of this county. (Photo courtesy of St. Clair County public relations rep Gary Hanner.)

The St. Clair County Arena has been home to a lot of great events through the years. From rodeos to circuses to church events and craft shows and many other things. Now, there is an opportunity to also use this arena to help save lives, thanks to a one million dollar grant.

At a recent meeting at the arena, local officials gathered with architects, construction managers, and grant writers to discuss how they could use the grant money to best meet the needs of St. Clair County citizens.

Grant writer and consultant Terry Acuff said that the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs (ADECA) awarded St. Clair County $600,000 in Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) cares act funds to address pandemic needs within the county. Another $400,000 was awarded to bring the total grant to $1 million.

“They could pick any project they wanted to do,” Acuff said. “They communicated with all of the cities and municipalities and had to have two-thirds support. This is the project they selected – due to the fact that it was a testing facility. With it being a testing facility, they thought they could also do other things related to vaccinations and things like that.

This is the facility they chose to do. Right now, we are in the design stage of this project. Hopefully, this project will be completed and can start in late summer.”

St. Clair County Commission Chairman Paul Manning said as this comes to fruition, it’s a great day for St. Clair County.

“With all of the different entities working together, it shows we care about the citizens of St. Clair County,” Manning said. “The pandemic has truly put a strain on this county the past two years. We are looking forward to using one of our facilities to hopefully be able to save lives. I appreciate Terry Acuff, the local Emergency Management Agency, Jason Goodgame, and the personnel at the arena for coming together to see a need to better serve our county.”

Jason Goodgame is the construction manager for the St. Clair County Commission. He said the meeting was for the purpose of setting up an initial vision for the St. Clair EMA for what will be done to the arena.

“We want to make it a vaccination site for the future,” Goodgame said. “Or other related things in case of tornadoes, etc. The goal today was to give everybody who has a scheme in the game to produce what they need to operate the building. That way, we can make a program list of what we are going to build and what will be acceptable for everybody. We can put it together and move forward with the project.”

St. Clair County attorney James Hill said the meeting was so essential.

“The uses and benefits that this arena has brought to the county have been significant over the past decade,” Hill said. “We want to ensure that we maintain that asset and the uses that this asset has created while at the same time improving it in the event that we have a terrible event like we have gone through the past couple of years.”

St. Clair County EMA Director Patrice Kurzejeski said it has been a huge burden in the past to identify a centralized location within the county to receive, store and distribute pandemic supplies, vaccinations, and testing.

“We have now identified the centralized location, which is the arena,” Kurzejeski said. “We will be able to use this arena not only for pandemic needs, but tornado relief items from FEMA in cause of a tornado. We no longer have to search for a place.”

Commissioner Tommy Bowers said he was excited to work with Chairman Paul Manning and the other commissioners to improve the safety and standards of living in St. Clair County.

“With the growth of our county, this pandemic site which will be centered in our county, will be a great asset,” Bowers said. “With very little local taxpayers’ money used on this project, it’s a win-win for those who use the arena and those who might need to use this improvement in the future.”

Commissioner Bob Mize said he thought the meeting went well.

“This was just the beginning of a project that will take a lot of planning and hard work to complete,” Mize said. “When finished, our county will have a facility that all will be proud of. I’m just thankful to be a small part of it.”

Commissioner Jeff Brown wanted to thank all the people involved in putting this project together.

“It’s a great project and has been a successful venture,” Brown said. “This will help us modernize and be ready for some future pandemic or whatever disaster may come along down the road. This is a big step for the future of St. Clair County.”

Commissioner Ricky Parker said it is so important to get this facility ready for the EMA and possible pandemic purposes.

“There are just so many things we can use this arena for in case of inclement weather, disasters, or a pandemic,” Parker said.

Ashley Hay is the Public Recreation Asset Manager for the St. Clair County Commission. She has an office at the arena and said this meeting

was so important because there were so many different groups present that needed to interact with one another.

“We all need to be on the same page as we discuss what the arena is currently being used for and what the future of it is for,” Hay said. “It’s good that everyone is bringing their ideas here as we realign this arena to include it being a pandemic center.”