Patience and Persistence Prevailed in Breaking Ground for New Rec Center
After two years and more than 30 Town Council meetings, Palm Beach officials rolled out the red carpet to break ground on the new Morton and Barbara Mandel Recreation Center on Seaview Avenue on Monday.
The 17,000-square-foot facility, expected to be completed in November 2019, features multipurpose rooms, a gymnasium, snack room, after-school room, game room, renovated tennis pro shop, and an expanded 
playground. It will replace the current recreation center. The Morton and Barbara Mandel Foundation, the town and the Friends of Recreation will pay one-third of the total cost, estimated to be $13.8 million. Private donors are picking up the rest of the tab.
“Construction on the center and numerous improvements to Seaview Park are underway,” Deputy Town Manager Jay Boodheshwar told a crowd of about 70 people. “If all goes well, a year from now we’ll have our ribbon-cutting ceremony.”
After students from the Palm Beach Public School and Palm Beach Day Academy led attendees in the Pledge of Allegiance, Boodheshwar opened the ceremony by thanking the Recreation Commission, Architectural Commission and Hedrick Brothers Construction, among others, for their hard work on the lengthy project.
He recounted that Morton Mandel, a Palm Beach resident for more than 50 years, accelerated the idea for improving the recreation center, along with Seaview Park.
Mayor Gail Coniglio, a staunch cheerleader for the project, said the center was a second home for her children on Saturday mornings. She added that it would be a place where children, adults and seniors could find enjoyment together.
“Palm Beach is the very essence of community, and this new rec center is its beating heart,” she said.
Other speakers included Town Council President Danielle Moore and Friends of Recreation co-founders Matt Smith and Mike Ainslie, who spearheaded the fundraising for the rec center. Smith thanked Mandel, as well as the Friends of Recreation for their $4.6 million gift.
“Their persistence and patience has been remarkable,” he said.
Ainslie said because of the new rec center, Palm Beach has “become the envy of towns across the country. The mayor of LaSalle, Colorado, is now begging us for help on their recreation center.”
After approaching the podium to a standing ovation, Morton Mandel said he appreciated the “high-quality way the idea was processed and approved by town leaders,” as well as the fact that the Town Council allowed opponents of the center to air their views at meetings. .
“Those who didn’t like it were able to express their opinions openly,” he said. “This is how it should be in the United States of America.” Mandel, Coniglio and others received plaques commemorating their involvement in the project.
The rec center did not reach approval easily, with contentious debate among town residents and council members, as well as a one-year lawsuit and a budget increase of more than $2 million. Supporters wanted to 
attract young families with a new center and said that costs to renovate the old one would be more than starting from scratch, while opponents were construction-weary and felt that the old center should just be updated. Councilwoman Julie Araskog told a July council meeting that she felt some documents involving the center were “not transparent.”
Smith and Ainslie are proud of the progress the town has made and said they feel somewhat close to the finish line.
“To have private funding covering two-thirds of the cost, that’s a win right there,” Smith said after the ceremony.
The ceremony concluded with members of the Town Council, Hedrick Brothers, Recreation Commission and Friends of Recreation taking shiny shovels and performing two ceremonial “turnings of the dirt.”
“This is a serious and honest effort to help Palm Beach be a better place to live,” Mandel said.
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The Palm Beach Recreation Center
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