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Welcome to another edition of Reframed: Preservation for a new Day, where beloved old spaces are reimagined. We take a deep dive into the preservation of an amazing historic space. What did it used to be? What is it now? And how did it happen? It's adaptive reuse and heritage for all. Brought to you by History Colorado and hosted by me.

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Dawn Diprince, Colorado State Historic preservation officer.

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Well, today,

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we are here with Dave Dixon and Roch Schmitz, with Boys and Girls Clubs of Weld County, and we are here to hear about their exciting preservation project. Specifically, they have a number of club sites, but specifically to hear about their preservation project relevant to their teen center.

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And if I understand correctly, is in what used to be a 1920s roller skating rink.

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Hi, Roch. Hi Dave. And I'm curious, which one of you wants to,

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give us the lay of the land about,

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this preservation project.

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Roch Schmitz here. I'll take the lead on that.

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Yes. Our our teen center, which we opened in,

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May of 2024, was originally a, a skating rink

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that was,

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put into place in 1948

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by, Fred Norcross and his wife.

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they built the 16,000 square foot skating rink on a place that,

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was originally established in the 1930s as an event center and ballroom. So, was a place for

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Greeley people to congregate

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it

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started as an event center, had a small skating rink there, and they decided

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to build a bigger skating rink as

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Their son Jay was involved in competitive skating. So they built this larger

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skating rink and operated it until 1996

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when,

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they decided to close it down. And,

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it had

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virtually sat vacant for close to 25 years.

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Wow. When was it vacant?

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More recently,

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since, they closed the skating rink in 1996.

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It has,

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sat vacant.

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There had really been,

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a true occupying tenant of it.

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Greenland Urban Renewal Department bought it from the Norcross family in

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1998. They held it,

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through 2011 sold it to a third party who used it as a storage facility for his industrial business.

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But,

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it had never,

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ever had

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any people in it since 1998. So

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it was, underutilized is what I'll describe it as

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I believe they had closed it down in 96, in favor of a new facility that they had built on the West side of Greeley. So it's not like roller skating left in 1996.

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but it left that building.

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Yeah. I it had me thinking about,

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this common,

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community plea. You hear that? There isn't enough for teens to do.

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And I'm curious about that from your perspective, because both of you have a lot of experience,

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working with youth.

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And,

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if

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that indeed is true, and if that is part of the impetus for the creation of a

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teen club,

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your comments are

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exactly true.

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I joined the board probably 12 or 13 years ago, and,

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it had always been a goal of ours to build something,

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standalone site

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for teens for to engage them

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after school and, and,

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in the evenings so we could

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get them off the streets, get them involved and better things. And there's just not a lot of choices

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for teens in any community.

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So

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in 2021,

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middle of 2021 coming out of Covid, we thought this was a good time to to truly start,

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reengaging the teens into the community, reengaging their experience. And so,

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we actually started,

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with our,

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architect, VFLA

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on a,

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plan to build a standalone new stick built

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building.

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we weren't planning on the route that

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we went,

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but,

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the journey has

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been long, and

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it's been wonderful.

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lots of learning thing. But

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our original plan was to build

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near the

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Island Grove Park in North Greeley.

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Thinking that would be a good location for a site. And we ran into floodplain issues and so had to pivot,

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and during one of our meetings with the city about

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potential other sites to pivot to for a stick built, they,

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inquired if we had taken a look at the old Warnoco site, which I been in there in probably 2004, when the city was looking at

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turning it into a mercado.

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But it never those plans never

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got completed. So,

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I'd been in there a long time ago, but probably like I said maybe 2004. So over 15 years

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had passed,

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driven by it many times and

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it had just kind of continue to wither.

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And so,

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that's how the discussion started on that.

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And

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after the meeting with the city, Terry Adams, the CEO, before Dave and I

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went to look at the building and

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we're standing outside and it's, it's a big barrel roof.

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Hip quonset type of building.

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Had regular asphalt shingles or some asphalt shingles on it, but you could see where there were probably holes in the roof.

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It was deteriorating. And,

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you know, we stood there and discussed and said, well, we love the site.

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It's on two and a half acres, but

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we didn't know if a renovation was possible or if it was going to be a tear down type of

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project, that what would it cost us to demo and build the stick built, 14,000 square foot facility that we had originally planned.

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So,

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took a lot of time with our architect and engineers and

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contractor that,

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looked at it and evaluated the, the building, and

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we determined it was it was salvageable. And,

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able to be constructed within our original budget, I guess is what I'll say.

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Fantastic.

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Yeah. Well, one of the things I find often is, you know, in communities that have been around for a while,

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sometimes

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all of the older buildings,

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they built on the best land right and the land that is left over.

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Do have some of those floodplains. Issues that you

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are talking about.

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Which is why, you know, when people started building things, they didn't build their,

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to begin with.

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And, you know, one of the concepts we talk a lot about in preservation in terms of environmental impact is embodied energy. Like, it's really great from an environmental standpoint,

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to, you know, use materials that already exist.

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But I think in this case, as I'm hearing you all talk,

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if you think about all of the ways in which this building was used before

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as, like a ballroom and a roller rink,

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the thought of the embodied energy of it. Now for a teen club also,

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you know, that seems like a great,

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connection.

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You know, it had lots of life and energy in it before.

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Like, it didn't deserve to just be a storage facility.

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It had this, like, other purpose,

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in terms of energy and connection,

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to these young people.

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how is it being used now? I

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would love to hear about that.

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Yeah. Well, and I was just going to say, we always say too that

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when it was a roller skating rink, it was this

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place that, you know, while it.

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it attracted all ages of roller skaters. Right. It let's face it, it predominantly attracted a lot of teens. Right. And so we always thought during the construction of the project, what a great way to honor the building's past right to take this building that had been such,

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a spot for teens to come and make so many memorable moments and have so many memories.

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And what a great way to honor that past

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by

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repurposing it into a facility. That would be the same thing, right? It would be a place for lots of teens to be able to come and, and create a lot of memories

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just in a different context. So and now it is. And to answer your question, Dawn, it is, it's a facility where we,

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where we host all kinds of programing in it from,

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you know, when kids arrive there after school, it can be everything from sitting down and

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helping our members with homework to taking them through art programing.

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We have a we have a whole separate room now that is an art studio inside the building. The building also has a room that we call our tech lab or our, the kids. The kids named it. The members named it the Blue Studio, where literally there is a different gaming console on every on each of three walls.

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We have lots of virtual reality goggles in there, and just lots of different technologies that the kids can interact with.

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We're working on trying to get them,

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into a e-sports,

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league. So that's a movement to start participating in e-sports.

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In another corner of the building, we have our career development center, which is really the closest thing the building has to any kind of classroom.

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And that's where we will facilitate everything from,

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resume writing workshops to helping the kids,

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with

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how to interview for jobs. We have career pathways. We call it our future ready lab, where kids will come in and hear from guest speakers from all different kinds of industries,

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help

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guide them,

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so that they can be guided, the career, the right career pathway for them,

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lots of different things like that.

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And then the whole building,

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was designed around a central kitchen.

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one of the big objectives was we wanted our kids often refer to our clubhouses as their home away from home. Right. And so we all know, right? Those of us that came home from school and how you just gravitate to the kitchen.

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And we wanted this building to feel like that. And the kids just do that in the central kitchen. They they arrive after school.

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in the first place they do is they go congregate in that kitchen and we serve them a snack, but they also congregate there and start to socialize and,

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talk with one another. And then and then at the far end of the building, we we were able to create a full court basketball court.

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it's regulation size in every aspect except for the length. So it's it's about two thirds the length of a full basketball court with width and all the other measurements are,

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correct. And,

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so we're able to do all five of our core programing areas,

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within this one building.

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That's amazing.

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And I can just picture that gathering in the kitchen.

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That feels very,

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special.

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like ordinary in a really special, cozy sort of way.

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You know, the kind, like a warm hug, right? Like the kind of warm hug every kid deserves,

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after school. And that sense of belonging and connection that you want every kid to get,

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after school, whether they've had a hard day or, you know, are ready for the next thing.

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I think that is very meaningful.

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and I am curious, you know, this sense of connection after the isolation of Covid and all of that disconnection,

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I noticed in some of your literature,

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you know, the connection that you've all made to maybe heightened suicide rates and,

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those kinds of hardships that we saw, you know, a number of our teenagers facing,

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brought on by Covid, but also brought on by the isolation of, you know, technology and all of the things that our young people have had to contend with.

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And,

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the ways in which you're imagining this space can help to,

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remedy some of those things.

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And it sounds like

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the, the space, the way in which it's designed, the way in which it's being used is doing exactly that.

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Very much. Yeah. And and I think as, as you hit on. Right. And, and Roch alluded to a little earlier, as well as coming out of Covid,

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lot of kids had, you know,

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Covid was such a

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disruption to not only the school experience, but also subsequently the after school experience and,

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it's been important for us to try to get

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back to those teens and, and get them back coming back to club

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after they had that

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the Covid experience that they did.

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Yeah. It was a rupture. And this feels like a good way to kind of bridge that rupture.

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and

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was there a teen club before or is this the first time Boys and Girls Club of Weld County had a teen club.

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we had a teen club at our Paul site, but,

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it was it was truly originally our bus barn. There attached to the building, about

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2000 square foot. That would hold

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20, maybe 30 people, 30 teens, if we stacked them together. So,

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our idea was, you know, to continue to expand,

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give them a bigger, better space.

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Like I said, it's attached to our Paul clubhouse. So they did have access to a gym, but they had to share the gym with our younger youth and teens tend not to want to do that. So,

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we just thought it'd be a better overall experience for for our kids. And

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we needed some more space. So yeah, we got about five times the

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amount of space for them.

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They have their own gym.

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And, it's truly been transformational

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to our kids. And, and I like to use that word transformational, because what we did to the building was transformational. We took an old,

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tired,

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Dilapidated, uninspiring building and transformed it into this beautiful teen center,

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somewhat like we're we're doing with kids. So we're taking some kids that, as they say, or we say that need us the most, and we're transforming them into productive and caring citizens in Weld County. So it's just been a wonderful experience.

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a space of their own. Right. And,

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you know, they deserve a space of their own. And it sounds like,

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everything lined up right. This building needed some love.

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kids needed a space of their own, and,

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it all kind of came together.

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But, you know, it wasn't just magic, as I'm sure you especially.

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know Roch

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required.

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Probably some spreadsheets and some calculators and all of that.

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we do know you got some tax credits. What are all of the,

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tools you used to bring this,

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project to life?

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we did get some historic tax credits.

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We did get a HUD grant

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that,

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was very helpful.

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Our,

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Weld Trust, which was a community partner up here, gave us their first legacy, what they call legacy investment,

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which was a huge investment into our deal.

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We had, community foundation,

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Greeley and Weld. I think it's called that, was a funder. There was a couple other

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individual and corporate foundations and then some individual donors.

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I think

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of, over $6.5 million we raised came from basically 26,

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different sources. So it wasn't

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it wasn't a

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huge amount

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stuff, but,

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a lot of work to get

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all these different grants and, tax credits and different things put together.

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Did you say 26 different,

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funding sources?

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That's correct.

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Yeah. I mean, I think that's pretty incredible.

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That sounds like, you know, I always like to think of these metaphorically, like barn raisings. Right? The idea that, you know, you can't do this kind of project alone, it really does require the community to all come together and pitch in. And this feels exactly like that.

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26, funding streams,

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from across the community and a wide variety of ways are all of the things that made this happen.

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Yeah. We had,

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individual donors. We had,

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some companies, Dave, would you share the story about our flooring contractor

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with Dawn

00:16:38:23 - 00:16:41:06

Oh, yeah. So, yeah. And then,

00:16:41:08 - 00:16:49:11

well, in addition to the donors. Yeah. And all those sources Roch mentioned, then when it came time to actually construct the building as our construction company,

00:16:49:17 - 00:16:51:17

Elder Construction helped us build the building.

00:16:51:17 - 00:17:18:13

And then they reached out to, you know, vendors to start to order products at the one of the most heartwarming stories that came from it is they were on the phone with the flooring contractor and, or the flooring supplier just ordering the flooring, and, and they were chatting about it and all of a sudden the, the woman on the other end of the line says, wait a minute, this, this flooring you are ordering is for boys and girls clubs.

00:17:18:15 - 00:17:23:19

and they were like, yeah. And they're like, she's like, oh my gosh, boys and Girls Club saved my life.

00:17:23:21 - 00:17:30:09

and so the next thing you knew it, she's like, I'll be back in touch with you. We want to do something. I want to I want to make sure we can do something to help.

00:17:30:09 - 00:17:34:09

And the long story short, all the flooring ended up getting donated.

00:17:34:11 - 00:17:35:00

So some

00:17:35:04 - 00:17:38:07

great stories like that that were that,

00:17:38:07 - 00:17:39:13

I almost get emotional.

00:17:39:15 - 00:17:45:20

Yeah, I know for sure. For sure. So, yeah, I mean, that is that generational work. Those are the legacies.

00:17:45:20 - 00:17:46:17

That. Yeah,

00:17:46:19 - 00:17:50:04

they, reach into the past, but they carry forward,

00:17:50:08 - 00:17:57:12

you know, into these new young people and then hopefully those young people will be community leaders someday.

00:17:57:12 - 00:17:59:22

And, carrying this forward as well,

00:18:00:03 - 00:18:09:07

pretty incredible. And, you know, I think this is also a testament to how loved the teens of Weld County are, right.

00:18:09:12 - 00:18:17:09

know, you never know if they realize all of that when they're eating a snack in the kitchen or playing a game of, pickup basketball. But,

00:18:17:09 - 00:18:21:05

that is what this kind of project, I think is a testament to.

00:18:21:07 - 00:18:21:17

Well,

00:18:21:19 - 00:18:39:14

in the community and the how much the community, beloved, the facility just the the attention that the building got as we were renovating it and so many people that couldn't wait to come in after we opened it, because they remember roller skating there and they couldn't wait to see what we had done to it.

00:18:39:18 - 00:18:42:22

It was that kind of interest that was amazing to watch.

00:18:43:02 - 00:19:04:17

And the number of people that would walk in and be like, oh my gosh, I remember, you know, they'd point to the corner where the penalty box used to be, which was the name that they gave to the to the area where you had to go if you were skating reckless or being too rambunctious, and the and the rink police would send you for over and to timeout basically.

00:19:04:17 - 00:19:10:12

Right. And and it's just those kinds of stories that we watched and and got to hear from people

00:19:10:16 - 00:19:12:23

as, as we were building it, it was,

00:19:13:04 - 00:19:14:19

it was. And what is the

00:19:14:19 - 00:19:18:12

what was the community's verdict? Did they feel like you

00:19:18:15 - 00:19:20:18

You did right by the building,

00:19:20:20 - 00:19:33:16

I think so. Don’t you Roch? I mean, I think we only get positive feedback from folks that come in and see it and applaud us for for not, you know, we'll get so many people, like, I could have sworn this building was going to get torn down.

00:19:33:16 - 00:19:37:19

And it's so cool to see that it that you guys, you know, gave it a new life.

00:19:37:20 - 00:19:39:12

and again, you know, now it's,

00:19:39:12 - 00:19:47:19

it's a new life that’s going to continue to impact and create all these, be a memorable place for for teens going forward. Right. And so,

00:19:48:00 - 00:19:50:21

I think I remember the story, Roch you were probably there.

00:19:50:21 - 00:20:07:18

And it gets recounted to me where you guys were in it shortly after we purchased it. And we had propped the door open, evidently. So someone was driving by and and all of a sudden they kind of inched their way in and peek in and they're like, sorry to interrupt, but this door is like that hasn't been opened in like 20 years.

00:20:07:18 - 00:20:20:09

And I just had to peek in here. It's because I, I used to roller skate in here so much. Right. And so just the interest level that, the people had wondering what was going to happen to the building.

00:20:20:11 - 00:20:21:13

Yeah, I think that

00:20:21:13 - 00:20:25:11

is the, beauty of a preservation project.

00:20:25:13 - 00:20:26:09

There's already

00:20:26:12 - 00:20:29:18

an inherent excitement in them.

00:20:29:20 - 00:20:39:07

And I think sometimes people are confused that preservation is about returning a building exactly as it once was.

00:20:39:08 - 00:20:41:02

But I think this project is such

00:20:41:02 - 00:20:49:14

a great example. Breathing new life into an old structure in ways that meet the current community,

00:20:49:14 - 00:20:50:04

needs,

00:20:50:09 - 00:20:53:08

you know, like, it had a beautiful life as a roller skating rink.

00:20:53:14 - 00:20:54:11

Clearly,

00:20:54:13 - 00:20:58:06

teen club is what, Weld County needs today.

00:20:58:08 - 00:20:58:16

Well,

00:20:58:21 - 00:21:07:09

always like to share when we give tours of the building, I always share this is that as we went and got our historic designation and went through the process.

00:21:07:13 - 00:21:08:09

I basically say that

00:21:08:11 - 00:21:11:15

there were four things that we were asked to do that we weren't already doing.

00:21:11:15 - 00:21:14:13

We were already doing quite a bit to preserve the building.

00:21:14:15 - 00:21:26:14

You know, we were preserving old benches, the old roller skating benches, a section of them that were already we were preserving them in the, in the gym. So the gym would just have built in seating, so to speak. And,

00:21:26:16 - 00:21:33:22

we were keeping as much of the original floor throughout the main, main space as we could, things like that.

00:21:34:00 - 00:21:35:02

but there were four things

00:21:35:04 - 00:21:53:00

that we were asked to do as part of gaining our, our status. And two of them, I think we were they were favors. I mean, they were I think they were fortuitous that they came about. One was we were going to paint the building white as part of our plans, and it came back and said, hey, will you just keep it the original brick color?

00:21:53:00 - 00:22:11:22

And that way we can preserve the way it was back in 1948 when it opened and we said, sure. And now, in hindsight, I mean, like we just saved ourselves. Now we don't have to sign up to repaint the building every 5 to 10 years. Right. And, and then there was another space. And what made me think of this was your comment about,

00:22:11:22 - 00:22:14:20

just preserving the way the building used to be.

00:22:14:20 - 00:22:31:05

And that is, we had to put a big wall between the gym and the rest of the facility. Right. As we created this and then that wall we originally had coming all the way down to the top of the doors that would go into the space, and we were asked to put a big transom window above those doors.

00:22:31:05 - 00:22:47:06

And the whole purpose was to preserve the sightlines that you used to be able to have inside the building. When it was a roller skating rink, which we totally got. And frankly, and in hindsight, I think it it was very additive. And it opens the building up way more. And

00:22:47:08 - 00:22:48:23

so that's the other one that I said that

00:22:49:01 - 00:22:51:08

the did us a favor.

00:22:51:10 - 00:22:53:04

Yeah. That's great. And I was going to ask

00:22:53:04 - 00:22:54:12

you about the floors.

00:22:54:14 - 00:22:58:11

because I'm sure spectacular wood floors as a roller skating rink,

00:22:58:16 - 00:23:02:00

and probably are great for basketball as well.

00:23:02:01 - 00:23:05:01

Actually, there, our basketball gym.

00:23:05:03 - 00:23:13:06

The floor was so deteriorated. Oh, no hole in the roof. And and water leaking on it that we have a whole new basketball floor.

00:23:13:06 - 00:23:15:03

But our central hub,

00:23:15:03 - 00:23:24:20

area where the kids congregate after school. Is the old roller skating floor Yeah. It's, old, tongue and groove,

00:23:24:23 - 00:23:34:21

inch and a quarter maple hardwood maple floor that we had refinished. And in the corners you can see, it was curved for

00:23:35:00 - 00:23:37:12

you know, where it went around the oval.

00:23:37:14 - 00:23:47:13

And so that still curved the Norcross family installed that hardwood by themselves. I couldn't tell you how many strips and

00:23:47:17 - 00:23:48:12

how you

00:23:48:14 - 00:23:49:02

curve wood

00:23:49:04 - 00:23:52:15

back in the 1940s to get this done. But,

00:23:52:17 - 00:23:54:22

just a fantastic,

00:23:55:00 - 00:23:58:09

you know, to mention that's just incredible craftsmanship.

00:23:58:14 - 00:23:59:13

Yeah. We wonder what it would

00:23:59:13 - 00:24:02:14

cost to if to really curve that would like that today.

00:24:02:14 - 00:24:05:09

Right. But that would be such a premium I'm sure. Right.

00:24:05:09 - 00:24:06:13

I'm sure.

00:24:06:15 - 00:24:08:04

Yeah. Well, what

00:24:08:06 - 00:24:09:21

what sort of lessons,

00:24:09:21 - 00:24:17:10

have you learned from this that you would share with somebody taking on a big endeavor like this?

00:24:17:12 - 00:24:18:16

Patience

00:24:18:18 - 00:24:23:15

That would be my number one thing. You need to have a lot of patience

00:24:23:18 - 00:24:28:22

You need to have a very good architect and a very good contractor.

00:24:29:01 - 00:24:36:15

Our architects were great with a vision that we outlined for them and our contractor

00:24:36:17 - 00:24:37:22

knew that we wanted

00:24:37:22 - 00:24:43:20

to preserve the building or the integrity of the building as much as possible.

00:24:43:23 - 00:24:45:06

and that's a challenge.

00:24:45:10 - 00:24:56:07

Our engineers were were great, but this building was built in the 1940s. They had no engineering loads for the roof or the floor or anything.

00:24:56:07 - 00:25:08:02

So as I said, this is a coupe style building. It's 26ft in the central, in the middle, from top to bottom. So it had a false,

00:25:08:08 - 00:25:25:01

ceiling in it that was falling down and we ended up tearing down, but we were not allowed to use any motorized equipment to do all that work. So it was all done by scaffolding and by hand, because engineers couldn't tell us if

00:25:25:01 - 00:25:26:20

the floor would support.

00:25:26:22 - 00:25:27:16

Oh, wow.

00:25:27:16 - 00:25:30:04

motorized lift

00:25:30:06 - 00:25:32:00

from very old school

00:25:32:02 - 00:25:34:17

if you had to do it old school. And then,

00:25:34:19 - 00:25:35:08

like I said,

00:25:35:08 - 00:25:38:21

we tore all the false ceiling and rotting,

00:25:38:21 - 00:25:43:16

insulation that was on the interior and had a great,

00:25:43:16 - 00:25:46:18

local company, Front Range Insulation, put,

00:25:46:18 - 00:25:52:12

an exterior layer of insulation on top and then a new roof to dry it in.

00:25:52:12 - 00:25:52:22

But,

00:25:53:00 - 00:25:55:03

we had some challenges with that as

00:25:55:05 - 00:25:56:19

our engineers couldn't tell us,

00:25:56:21 - 00:26:11:22

was the building and the roof built to support the weight of a new roof and, like, well it's been here for 70 years, 70 plus years and supported what it's supported, you know, so

00:26:11:22 - 00:26:14:16

we got to deal with all sorts of fun things that

00:26:14:16 - 00:26:15:20

you wouldn't expect.

00:26:15:20 - 00:26:20:04

but it's it's been wonderful. The building itself, the floor itself,

00:26:20:04 - 00:26:24:01

sits on basically a crawl space. And

00:26:24:01 - 00:26:28:22

you know, there were some holes in the floor. We looked down there, some 18 inch crawl space.

00:26:28:22 - 00:26:29:04

But,

00:26:29:07 - 00:26:35:02

you know, some of the, the floor beams are literally sitting on rocks that are stacked up.

00:26:35:05 - 00:26:38:16

It's not your standard new construction type of deal.

00:26:38:21 - 00:26:41:02

but it's incredible.

00:26:41:08 - 00:26:42:08

Well. And what an

00:26:42:12 - 00:26:43:11

incredible,

00:26:43:13 - 00:26:46:12

construction project, too. You all are champions.

00:26:46:14 - 00:26:49:05

And I'm sure there were just,

00:26:49:05 - 00:26:52:20

incredible adventures, lurking around every

00:26:52:22 - 00:26:57:02

corner that you, had no anticipation of.

00:26:57:04 - 00:27:01:23

That. Yes, That is true. Yeah. Yeah. What did you say a 26?

00:27:01:23 - 00:27:03:12

foot ceiling.

00:27:03:14 - 00:27:06:00

Well, and Roch, I'm reminded even too right,

00:27:06:02 - 00:27:17:10

that we were originally the building had these big, long transom window in the roof that we had thought we were going to preserve and certainly had to design in.

00:27:17:10 - 00:27:18:06

And it became a,

00:27:18:10 - 00:27:21:17

you know, a field change when we got there because it

00:27:21:17 - 00:27:26:02

became very apparent that it was going to be cost prohibitive to preserve those windows.

00:27:26:04 - 00:27:30:05

so it's just some of those things you have to those decisions. Right. That had to be make made on the

00:27:30:09 - 00:27:31:19

out in the field. And,

00:27:31:19 - 00:27:35:04

after the design, when you thought you had a final design

00:27:35:06 - 00:27:35:23

and we

00:27:35:23 - 00:27:37:08

were lucky enough that,

00:27:37:08 - 00:27:44:07

Sarah and the history Colorado people that we worked through the historic preservation, historic Greeley,

00:27:44:10 - 00:27:47:04

our partners, Lindy Thompson and our partner there,

00:27:47:07 - 00:27:48:04

were flexible.

00:27:48:07 - 00:27:59:09

And like you said, you want to preserve as much as you can, but you don't have to take it, necessarily take it back to the original. So we were able to

00:27:59:11 - 00:28:00:03

remove

00:28:00:03 - 00:28:03:20

the dormer that was just falling apart and leaking, and,

00:28:03:20 - 00:28:07:07

complete the roof back in as, as just a standard

00:28:07:11 - 00:28:10:18

rolled roof and made things much

00:28:10:22 - 00:28:13:10

more financially feasible for us.

00:28:13:13 - 00:28:22:14

Worked in our design a little better and, still kept the integrity of the building itself in place.

00:28:22:16 - 00:28:25:05

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Sometimes it just

00:28:25:07 - 00:28:31:12

takes us all rolling up our sleeves and trying to figure out what are all the best solutions,

00:28:31:14 - 00:28:32:08

to get,

00:28:32:11 - 00:28:39:01

ultimately to the main goal. Right? Which is preserving the totality of the structure,

00:28:39:03 - 00:28:41:17

and not getting caught up in every single,

00:28:41:19 - 00:28:42:23

precious detail.

00:28:42:23 - 00:29:01:13

But to keep our eye on the goal, which is sounds like you all have done, and I think it's evidenced by how you're utilizing this building every day. Really? What a champion project. And now I, I really, really want to go up there and see this.

00:29:01:17 - 00:29:05:05

It's a spectacular building, but more than that,

00:29:05:11 - 00:29:07:10

I really want to see it being used.

00:29:07:10 - 00:29:17:22

I love the idea of teens gathering at this, you know, community kitchen and doing their art and doing their homework and shooting hoops and,

00:29:18:00 - 00:29:21:06

you know, it just seems like getting all the things that they,

00:29:21:08 - 00:29:32:11

need. Yeah. I'm curious if there's any roller skating that still happens on site or is that, to to 1990s for this group of teens?

00:29:32:12 - 00:29:34:10

that's a great question.

00:29:34:12 - 00:29:36:21

As I said, the Norcross family operated

00:29:37:00 - 00:29:54:22

the skating rink. They also operated one in West Greeley that was continuing to operate when they closed the site, that our Teen Center site. So they actually put a deed restriction on the building when they sold it, that it could no longer be used

00:29:55:01 - 00:29:57:11

as a commercial roller skating rink.

00:29:57:11 - 00:29:57:20

So

00:29:58:00 - 00:30:02:05

we have not utilized it for any roller skating.

00:30:02:07 - 00:30:02:17

But,

00:30:02:17 - 00:30:03:03

that,

00:30:03:08 - 00:30:03:19

you know,

00:30:03:19 - 00:30:14:09

again, the historic preservation piece on the south side of the building, it used to say roller skating rink and these big two foot,

00:30:14:09 - 00:30:30:07

tin numbers, or not numbers, but letters. And when we went to start, you know, doing stuff, we took down those letters and we set them aside and we're like, we're going to find a place for this somewhere in the building.

00:30:30:09 - 00:31:03:04

We just they're too cool. They're all patina and stuff and we didn't know where to. So they certainly construction trailer for close to a year as we were building this and then Dave was on board. We're standing in the gym prior to you know, as we're finishing things out and we're looking around and we're like, hey, the south wall of the gym above the transom that Dave was talking about, that would be there's just enough space we could fit them in there.

00:31:03:04 - 00:31:12:05

So we took these old letters off the south end of the that we're on the south end of the building and put them on the south end of our gym.

00:31:12:07 - 00:31:17:17

paid a little homage to what the building originally was.

00:31:17:19 - 00:31:27:01

And that's in addition to when you walk in our building too we have a little corner right in the lobby to where we pay that same homage to the history. And we have like a little photo wall

00:31:27:03 - 00:31:29:22

of what, when it was a roller skating rink and,

00:31:30:03 - 00:31:34:08

at the time it was I think we have a newspaper article frame there of

00:31:34:10 - 00:31:36:21

when it was opening from the day it opened.

00:31:36:23 - 00:31:39:04

It opened on May 28th,

00:31:39:06 - 00:31:44:14

1948, was when it opened as a roller skating rink. And coincidentally enough, we opened

00:31:44:17 - 00:31:49:01

as our new teen center on May 29th. One day, almost

00:31:49:01 - 00:31:53:02

to the day. But May 29th, 2024. So,

00:31:53:04 - 00:31:56:01

so 76 years apart.

00:31:56:02 - 00:31:56:20

amazing.

00:31:56:23 - 00:31:58:13

Yeah. Well, I,

00:31:58:15 - 00:32:00:03

I really do,

00:32:00:03 - 00:32:03:11

want to make a journey up there and and see all of this.

00:32:03:11 - 00:32:06:11

She painted an incredible picture.

00:32:06:13 - 00:32:10:19

I love all of the ways in which you have pulled this together.

00:32:10:19 - 00:32:14:21

You know, as a community effort and clearly a community effort.

00:32:15:00 - 00:32:23:07

But also the way it serves, your community needs today and and very much well into the future. What a great project.

00:32:23:10 - 00:32:24:09

I thank you both,

00:32:24:11 - 00:32:25:03

for your

00:32:25:03 - 00:32:30:22

big commitment to preservation, in ways you didn't even know you were going to be big preservation.

00:32:31:00 - 00:32:36:21

Champions. But, also, thank you for joining us today and sharing this great story.

00:32:36:23 - 00:32:48:20

Thanks. Thanks for having us. And yes, please, the invitation is open for you and anyone from History Colorado. If anyone wants to come up, we'd love to give, give tours.

00:32:48:22 - 00:32:49:19

Yeah. Thank you.

00:32:49:23 - 00:32:51:13

And for the general public,

00:32:51:13 - 00:32:55:21

we are not open for tours. But if you want to schedule with our

00:32:55:21 - 00:33:00:02

boys and girls Club main office, we can get you in for a tour.

00:33:00:02 - 00:33:00:18

But,

00:33:00:20 - 00:33:09:12

for our safety concerns for our kids, we do keep it under lockdown. So you can't just walk up and and get a tour.

00:33:09:14 - 00:33:10:08

Good call.

00:33:10:13 - 00:33:13:02

Good point. Roch Yeah.

00:33:13:04 - 00:33:20:03

Yes. Well, thank you.

00:33:20:05 - 00:33:45:18

To see photos from this edition, visit HistoryColorado.org/Podcast. Reframed Preservation for a New Day is presented by History Colorado, offering 11 beautiful, inspiring museums and historic sites that ignite imagination of all ages. Join us to discover your past and build a better future for all people in Colorado.

00:33:45:20 - 00:34:02:16

Home to a free public research center, Colorado's Office of Archeology and Historic Preservation, and the Colorado State Historical Fund, the nation's largest preservation fund of its kind. Learn more at HistoryColorado.org

00:34:02:18 - 00:34:17:04

This episode was produced by Sam Bock and Sarah Kappel, edited by Callie Mejia and directed by Julie Jackson of Julie Speer Productions and Truce Media Collective.

00:34:17:06 - 00:34:25:04

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