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Mt. Sterling’s Clay Community Center Will Serve Many Uses
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When the Clay Community Center opens its doors in September 2002‚ visitors will cross the threshold into a new era for Mt. Sterling - and the official end of an old one.
Inside its walls will be meeting rooms‚ classrooms‚ computers and sophisticated audio visual equipment. But beyond the brick and mortar‚ glass and steel will be the pride of a community that overcame crisis and grew a vision for its future.
“We hope it will be a facility that serves a lot of different needs for a lot of different folks‚” says John W. Clay‚ whose family provided the financial seed money from which the project grew. “It will be a place to bring people together.”
Uniting as a community is something Mt. Sterling knows all about. Hard times came to town a decade ago‚ when the area’s largest employer shut down and another slashed its workforce‚ handing the city the toughest crisis in its history.
Unemployment rose‚ the business climate sagged and Mt. Sterling’s economic future looked bleak - until far-sighted community leaders‚ including Traditional Bank’s Cliff Stiltz‚ sat down together to find a way out of the doldrums.
With several outstanding industrial sites‚ a prime location‚ in-place infrastructure and a pro-business city administration‚ Mt. Sterling‚ with the help of a hired consultant‚ began to make an economic rebound a reality. In 10 years the industrial/commercial base grew and became diversified and unemployment dropped from nearly 20 percent‚ to 3.2 percent. More than 3‚600 new jobs came to town with such companies as Cooper Tire & Rubber‚ Chef America‚ Lion Apparel and Hoffman Engineering.
“Then people kind of sat down three or four years ago and said‚ ‘What’s next?’” says David Points‚ executive director of the Montgomery Community Development Board. “People had their own projects‚ but they came together to tackle the community center first‚ because it was a way to help keep the downslide of 10 years ago from ever happening again.”
Development of the 27-acre center was divided into phases. The first focuses on education and training. Later‚ athletic fields and a swimming pool will be added‚ with long-term plans calling for a library‚ arts center and amphitheater at the site.
The dream was sparked into reality by a $500‚000 donation from Albert and Lorraine Clay‚ whose family has lived for six generations in Mt. Sterling.
“Daddy has always been community-minded‚” says his son John‚ who donated the spectacular sculpture that will grace the center’s foyer. “To use his words‚ he wanted to give something back to the community that had been so good to him.”
The Clays’ contribution‚ says Points‚ was an impressive drawing card for other donors‚ who included local‚ state and federal governments‚ private individuals‚ and businesses.
The 30‚000-square-foot building will contain meeting space for 650 seated guests‚ and will accommodate everything from corporate gatherings to weddings. Four classrooms will be available‚ two equipped with computers and state-of-the-art technology for training and retraining workers.
Distance learning‚ where instructors and students interact live via television‚ is an especially exciting component‚ allowing workers to take classes taught as close by as Morehead State or as far away as California.
Points expects the center’s training capabilities to be used by industries working closely with the state’s Cabinet for Workforce Development. Plans call for the center to eventually affiliate with the state technical college system. When it opens‚ it will offer core classes for associate degrees through Morehead State.
“Like everyone else‚ we’re dealing with a changing economy‚” Points says. “We’re hoping we can keep the highly trained workforce and the ability to retrain in an instant if need be to meet the changing needs of industry.”
Story by Laura Hill
