Construction begins on city's new W.A. Foster Center
By Ethan Smith
Published in News on August 13, 2015 1:46 PM
Full Size
News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Masons pump cement into the sides of the foundation of the new W.A. Foster Center being constructed at Mina Weil Park Tuesday. The project is expected to be complete in March of 2016.
Full Size
News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
An artist's rendering of the new W.A. Foster Center is shown at the top of a sign at the entrance being constructed off John Street.
Construction of Goldsboro's new W.A. Foster Center at Mina Weil Park is under way and is expected to be complete by the middle of March 2016.
The site has already been cleared and graded, preparing it for the $5.8 million project.
"It's hard to see exactly how much progress has been made unless you saw it before we started, but it's really tremendous," said Parks and Recreation Director Scott Barnard.
The building will cost $4.2 million to construct, while $900,000 has been allocated by the City Council for the property acquisition, $100,000 has been allocated for equipment for the project and $500,000 has been charged for the design of the building.
The concrete pad for the new gym floor already has been laid, too. Eventually, a barrel roof made of metal will cover the top of the gym as an homage to the original W.A. Foster Center on Leslie Street.
"We've got the foundation work done and we've started on constructing the driveway entrance on John Street," said T.A. Loving project superintendent and site supervisor David Lewis. "After all that's done and the walls go up, we'll put the roof on."
The rest of the roof, other than the gym roof, will be made of TPO -- a white, rubberized membrane, Lewis said.
Re-bar is sticking straight up out of the concrete foundations, providing a loose vision of the structure that will be reach completion in under a year.
"We'll have this complete in time for summer camps next year, and that is very exciting," Barnard said. "The other building lived for 75 plus years, and this one should last much longer."
W.A. Foster Center Leader Gladys McClary said she is "very excited" about construction on the new center being under way.
"I'm very excited for the community, particularly for the children," Mrs. McClary said. "It's been a long time coming, but there's a saying that says better late than never."
Construction beginning on a new center shows that the Goldsboro City Council cares about the children in the community, Mrs. McClary said.
"It shows that our City Council wants to see our children have a place to go other than the streets, because now is the time when young people really need a safe haven to be able to go to," Mrs. McClary said. "I also wanted to mention our director, Scott Barnard, because I really don't think this would have been done without him working so hard on it and staying on top of it."
Mrs. McClary said the current center is buzzing with people talking of the construction being under way.
"The kids are really excited, and the adults are like, 'It's really happening, it's really being done,'" Mrs. McClary said. "So the kids are excited, and the adults are just so happy."
Barnard said the city is unsure of what it will do with the old W.A. Foster Center.
But, he said, whatever the city does will be done with the intention of making the largest number of residents happy.
"The council hasn't voted yet, of course, but when we've talked about it we've always nodded in this direction: The old building will most likely be demolished," Barnard said.
Some regulars at the current W.A. Foster Center said they'd like to see a plaque or a monument constructed on the old site to acknowledge the fact that it once stood there. They say every other historical building in the black community has been torn down and forgotten, and they don't want that to happen to the W.A. Foster Center.
"We know that some citizens have said they want a plaque or a monument," Barnard said. "We don't know what we'll do yet. We don't want to do the community a disservice by sticking an obelisk-like monument there and making it to where the site can't be used for anything else. But, if that's what everyone in the community wants, then we might just do that. Whatever we do, we want to make sure we're making the community happy."