NEWTON COUNTY — Once again, the Nelson Heights Community Center was an object of discussion among the Newton County Board of Commissioners. 

At the Tuesday, April 15 meeting, District 5 Commissioner LeAnne Long owned up to bringing the topic onto the evening’s agenda.

“One of the things that we talked about was we wanted to get moving again on that Nelson Heights center, at least get the center opened, get the repairs necessary to get the center opened for the summer months, and have some kind of mentoring programs or whatever we’re going to choose to have at Nelson Heights,” Long said. “But having the center closed for two years is not serving anybody in that community.”

James Brown, interim county manager, was able to provide the board with a few updates on the center renovations. 

Brown said that the estimated completion date for all the renovations currently sits in mid to late July, but that it could be possible to structure the renovations to allow for a partial opening of the center earlier in the summer.

“They are looking to see if there’s a possibility to wrap up the inside of Nelson Heights Community Center earlier and then look at a way forward to safely allow for a afterschool care or some type of activity to be involved safely for the community to ulitize that facility during the rest of the phase of the project,” Brown said.

The interim county manager added that he is in the process of meeting with various groups to determine which will operate programming at the center. 

“There are a total of nine community organizers that we are looking at to see what best fits,” Brown said. 

One such group, the Taylor Made Foundation, actually petitioned the board at the April 8 meeting of FY25 Budget Appropriations Presentations, seeking the opportunity to work in the Nelson Heights Community Center.

Brown mentioned Taylor Made by name at the board of commissioners meeting, saying that he has met privately with the foundation.

“As of right now, the only meeting that we have taken thus far is Taylor Made, and we are following back up with the rest of them that [previous county manager] Mr. Cooper had during the late part of last year,” Brown said. “So we are looking at all those additional parts to see which one best fits for the community.”

District 2 Commissioner Demond Mason encouraged the county to consider modeling the Nelson Heights Community Center around the Washington Street Community Center, which actually has programming from Taylor Made in place. 

Taylor Made mentioned this at the budget meeting, saying they served as the Washington Street center’s “Team Resource.”

“We provide after-school programs as well as summer enrichment programs,” said Darnell Taylor, founder and executive director of the Taylor Made Foundation, at the April 8 budget meeting. “It’s a 38-week after-school program and a six-week summer enrichment program. And we’re providing the students college readiness, career readiness, financial literacy, STEM education, we take them on enriching field trips and we also perform community service.”

District 4 Commissioner J.C. Henderson – in whose district Nelson Heights is located – has been very vocal about getting the community center operational so that the local children have something positive to occupy themselves with over the summer. 

“We’ve been taking from that center, and I think it should be time we give back to them,” Henderson said.

As the community center was only on the agenda for discussion, the item did not call for a vote.