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By Jim Buice
For the Clemmons Courier

While the Town of Lewisville continues to evaluate what is needed in a new community center, the location has been resolved.

Thanks to a generous gift from Mary Alice Warren of 15 acres of land beside Jack Warren Park on Lewisville-Clemmons Road, Lewisville now has an ideal spot with ample room to build a new facility to replace the aging G. Galloway Community Center.

Warren had previously donated the land for Jack Warren Park, also a 15-acre tract, to the town in honor of her late husband, Jack. Some people close to Warren said that she preferred the prime piece of real estate to be preserved in some type of scenic landscape setting, such as a passive park.

“She gave us an additional 15 acres right adjacent to the east of the current Jack Warren Park,” Mayor Mike Horn said. “It’s a fabulous gift. In her mind, she said this is an opportunity to really create even more of a spectacular place for our residents. And so we’re going to use that additional 15 acres to develop the community center site.”

Horn said that Warren gave Lewisville the second piece of property three or four months ago, not long after the town put together a community advisory board and started gathering input from citizens while initiating talks with architectural firms about what might go into a new community center.

Horn said that Warren “didn’t want us to make a big deal out of this,” but it will obviously complement a park that was a noteworthy addition to the “downtown” area when it opened in 2010. Jack Warren Park includes a multipurpose field, a large pavilion, two playground units, a paved walking and bike trail and a restroom facility.

“There are very few communities that can say that they have a 30-acre park right in the heart of downtown,” Horn said. “We’ve really focused on community building. We’ve looked at designing a town that has multiple places where residents can come together and meet each other. I think that probably the community center site itself may only have a footprint of five acres or so. The rest could be walking trails, perennial gardens, all kinds of stuff.”

Earlier this year, the town was considering a capital expenditure of roughly $3.5 million for the community center project — but that was before the donation of land for the site — with early projections calling for the new building to be in the 10,000- to 12,000-square-foot range.

“I would suspect that when we look at this closely that our appetite may be a little bigger than our stomach,” Horn said. “We’ll probably have to do some modifications, some rethinking of some of the things.”

ADW Architects out of Charlotte has been selected as the architect for the project, and Horn said he hoped architectural plans may be done by the end of the year, depending on how long it takes to finalize the list of what all will be included.

The community center was to be part of the manager’s report for this week’s Lewisville Town Council Briefing and Action Meeting Agenda.

Also included is an update on a NCDOT public meeting for the Great Wagon Road project, which is scheduled for Thursday, July 25, at a time to be announced.

And with the arrival of another July 4^th and the celebration of Independence Day, Lewisville will be in the spotlight with its annual fireworks show.

Town officials projected that a crowd of some 15,000 came to Lewisville in 2018 for the festivities, and another large gathering is expected this year, weather permitting.

“We’ve got a great band, we’ve got some wonderful organizations that will be selling all kinds of different foods, but certainly the highlight is the fireworks,” Horn said. “This year is going to be as good if not better than last year.

“Kids in America” Totally ’80s tribute band will put on the concert starting at 6:30 p.m. at Shallowford Square with the fireworks scheduled to begin around 9:30 p.m.