CHARLOTTE COUNTY, Fla. – For more than six decades people in Port Charlotte relied on the cultural center for meals, entertainment and exercise. The center shut down in November, and now a team effort is underway to get the gathering place back open as soon as possible.
Today, many people showed up in front of county leaders to explain why the center is missed so much.
“Health and welfare, mental health, the sense of being important.. it can’t be measured in dollars and cents,” one woman said.
“To say the cultural center is sorely missed is an understatement,” another added.
The missing sense of community is why the Charlotte Community Foundation is looking for a consultant to figure out what programs residents want when the center reopens.
Commissioner Stephen R. Deustch explains what that looks like.
“What was good that we were doing at the cultural center and we should try to continue to do? What were some things that we weren’t doing that might be really good to have? What were a couple things we did that maybe ehh aren’t great? And what’s some new ideas that would help bring some life to it?” he said.
As the foundation works that angle, county leaders are looking at the physical structure.
“As I went through this building, all I saw was demolition,” commissioner Joseph Tiseo said.
The Charlotte County Board of Commissioners is split on what needs to happen with the facility: preserve it, tear it down or salvage only certain aspects.
Right now, as the process is underway, this is the message commissioner Christopher Constance wants citizens to take away: “We’re going to have Charlotte cultural center 2.0. We want to get this right.”
The next steps include making a decision about the facility and finding funding for any improvements or construction.
The community foundation hopes to have results back from the consultant before the end of the year on what programs the center could offer.
The post Charlotte County residents push to re-open cultural center appeared first on NBC2 News.
