The Minnis Lakeview Recreation Center in northeast Oklahoma City celebrated a grand reopening recently amid community uproar over the facility’s future and funding.
The event saw a turnout of over 200 people, including children, young adults and older residents, who visited the center, 12520 NE 36, to enjoy hotdogs and hamburgers and to learn about what the facility offered, such as after-school activities, youth programs and adaptive courses.
“I think we’re just really appreciative of the community’s engagement and help, and we hope that, together, this new partnership will make the facility even more successful,” Oklahoma City Parks and Recreation Director Melinda McMillan-Miller said of the event.
Leaders in the community had been worried the recreation center would close, but park officials said that concern grew out of a misunderstanding of how the department was intending to repurpose its funding through another potential partner .
To Delbert Laskey, vice chair of the Minnis Lakeview Recreation Center’s advisory committee, how to prioritize funding for the facility is still a serious issue. When he was growing up, the center was always considered the place for children to go, and its programming has reflected that over the years.