By Chloe Jones
After two years, the McPherson Community Building is done with renovations and already in use. Voters in the 2008 election supported a half-cent sales tax to fund this project. At the end of 2017, almost 10 years after the vote, Hutton Construction went to work, and their hard work is finally complete. Some updates include: balcony seating on three sides of the court, an exposed ceiling, and wooden floors, a new convention space with meeting rooms on the second floor balcony, and an extended and updated kitchen. Gymnasium walls now have informational signs about the history of the Globe Refiners–a basketball program from McPherson that went all the way to the Olympics–and much more. What once was theatre seating is now leveled to be the convention space floor; this can be reversed if the community decides so in the future. More renovations include updated heating and air conditioning systems throughout the building and updated bathrooms.
The annual community dinners on Thanksgiving and Christmas will be held at the Community Building this year. Other uses for the building include middle school sports practices, other youth team practices and tournaments, and uses of the meeting rooms and banquet hall for business or personal use. Community members (and people outside of the community of McPherson) may rent the building at a low price for things such as graduation parties, wedding receptions, or even just to use the gymnasium for a couple hours of practice.
