By: Dean Vaglia | Macomb Chronicle | Published July 29, 2024
MACOMB TOWNSHIP — A birthday party for a building? It is more likely than you may think.
On the evening of July 19, families and community members converged on the Macomb Township Recreation Center to celebrate its 20th birthday. Games, activities, refreshments and more were all there to provide a good time for guests young and old.
“It was a perfect evening for us,” Macomb Township Parks and Recreation Director Sal DiCaro said. “It was beautiful weather. We had a nice crowd. About 1,200 people showed up. A lot of activities. A lot of people we haven’t seen in a long time, old members and stuff like that. It was just a really nice event, and everyone there had a great time.”
While some attendees of the celebration could not think of a day where the center was not there at the corner of Macomb Street and Broughton Road in the township center, others could remember a time when the land it stands on was not too different from the forests and farm fields that still surround it. After all, the recreation center has only been there for 20 years.
By the early 2000s, major parks and recreation programs were only beginning to build steam. The first millage for the Parks and Recreation Department was passed in 1996, beginning operation in 1998 and opening Waldenburg Park as its first park in 2001. Along with the millage was approval to build a recreation center in the proposed Macomb Township Center, a plan by then-supervisor John Brennan and Troy-based planner Robert Gibbs to build a traditional downtown in Macomb Township.
“There was nothing out here around 25 Mile Road back in those days,” DiCaro said. “They bought all this land, and it was really (Brennan’s) vision and the board’s vision at the time. I was fortunate enough to come on prior to it. I was a part of the design phase and all the needed things to do in preparation of it.”
While the millage passing in 1998 showed a willingness from the community to build and pay for a recreation center and programs, it was not always clear whether that was the case. Charlie Oliver, owner of Oliver Sod Farm and a member of the township board around the turn of the millennium, said he was not entirely on board at first until an encounter he had on a delivery run. Several kids were playing street hockey when Oliver came through with his truck, causing the kids to stop their game and move their net so Oliver could get through.
“They had nowhere to go and at the time, my wife and I were struggling with our own kids because they were entering tee ball and sports and we had nothing for them either,” Oliver said. “So, all those things combined for me and started making me realize there was a need for this.”
The recreation center was built in two phases, with phase one costing $14.2 million. Amenities planned for the original approximately 60,000-square-foot center included a workout area, track, aquatic center and a single basketball court. The development of the recreation center was done alongside the creation of the nearby Macomb Corners Park, with both opening on July 19, 2004.
Opening day of the recreation center was marked with a ceremony and tours. Oliver remembers his first impressions of the recreation center as awestruck pride.
“To walk into a brand-new facility like that and knowing that not a lot of communities could afford that, the board felt so proud of what they did for the residents,” Oliver said. “The new staff were so proud to show it off and let people use it. The swimming pool was beautiful and the walk around the top was fantastic. … Even the first time I walked there were two groups of kids playing ball and they were having the time of their life.”
For DiCaro, the first day of the recreation center was a chance to make the rest of the community feel the same way as Oliver, but with the goal of turning community members into recreation center subscribers.
“People could go in and sign up for memberships and tours,” DiCaro said. “Obviously, that was at the very beginning stages where we didn’t have members or anything yet, so that was kind of an introduction to the community of the rec center. … I thought it was very well received because within the next two years we had to get started on a whole another phase. There was some question on what type of reception it was going to get from the residents, but it’s just become such a staple of the community.”
Over the following two decades, the recreation center and department have grown. The department now has eight different facilities including the Marvin Blank Senior Center, 26 Mile Road Nature Preserve and its newest additions of Lucido River Park and Pitchford Park. The recreation center itself had its second phase completed in 2007, expanding it to 92,000 square feet and becoming a cornerstone of community events all along the way.
“One of the things I’m most proud of is the positive impact the rec center has had on the community,” DiCaro said. “It really is the hub of activity for our township. Obviously, people go there to work out and swim and dance, play pickleball and basketball and attend classes, but it’s really been so much more than that. Since we’ve opened, 28,000 swim lessons have been given. We average 450 birthday parties. Between 500-700 people come through our door every day. All of our indoor special events like Halloween Hoopla, Easter ‘Egg’travaganza and our tree lighting afterglow are all here at the rec center. It truly has been everything that we hoped it would be and more. I consider it the crown jewel for our residents, and I really think it’s what separates us from surrounding communities.”
For now, plans to expand the recreation department are limited to finding new park lands to work with — DiCaro always has an ear open for proposals and donations — while managing the existing ones. But the ultimate decision about the future of Macomb Township Parks and Recreation comes down to what its residents and community members want to see in their township.
“We’ll adapt to the changes of what the people want,” DiCaro said. “Five or six years ago nobody was talking about pickleball. Pickleball is a huge thing now. We just have to evolve with what the interests of the people are and try to reach the demands that they’re asking for.”