The question about what to do with Cookson Community Center ought to engage just about anybody in this community who wants to improve the quality of life, increase offerings to otherwise unsupervised children and make this city a more attractive place for new families.


The West Branch Parks and Recreation Department was given the building and the directive to put it to use. P&R Director Melissa Russell did that, opening the building to the community and making it a regular meeting place for the American Legion, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and the West Branch Food Pantry.

The building took on the Iowa Communications Network’s telecommunications equipment, which had been in an old house that has since been torn down, and gave it a better location. The equipment is used regularly by groups like Main Street West Branch and the Hoover Association, though one wonders if Liberty Communications’ new fiber network, a few Web cams and microphones could do the job just as well. In the meantime, where will ICN go if Cookson is closed?

But these things listed above do not appear in the P&R budget.

The P&R budget is also not contained within the Cookson building, or even on its grounds. P&R activites are spread all over town, like Town Hall, the ball fields behind and next to West Branch High School, the soccer field behind Henderson-Barker Funeral Home, Beranek Park and inside and outside the schools themselves. P&R even takes people out of town for trips, swimming lessons and more.

On early-out days, tweeners trek across town to kill time in its lower level, which is filled with books, couches, tables and games, many of which were donated by residents hoping to see those same kids get off the streets and engaged in wholesome, supervised activities.

Cookson was designed as a nursing home, not a community center, yet the aforementioned groups, plus West Branch Middle School Science Club teams and families, have found it quite suitable for a variety of uses.

While the roof could use some repairs on the north side, the brick building itself is in good condition. So while Russell pulls together a committee to figure out the best way to use the space, one of the trickiest parts is figuring out if they can keep the baby and toss out the bathwater — the parts that just are not needed.

Can it be renovated? Can we add a gymnasium? Now that the city has had a taste of what it is like to have a community center, perhaps the support exists to dig up the plans that were deep-sixed by the failure of the joint city-school referendum. Maybe it would be best to shut down part of the building to save on utilities, ride out this shaky economy, and then build something with the West Branch Public Library. (A library seems like a better fit for the telecommunications equipment, and for Science Club teams.)

Russell’s new committee took on some city council members on Monday. Perhaps the school should send a representative, like someone from the athletic department.

West Branch has been struggling with the desire to create a community/recreation center for some time now. This may be the opportunity to start anew — small, at first — and grow in phases.