From the heart: Dixon Park district’s leader emotional over community center groundbreaking

DIXON — It was more than a groundbreaking.

Especially for the person driving it, Duane Long.

Shining silver shovels turned brown dirt on a blustery Thursday afternoon at The Meadows.

The symbolic act — involving business, financial and civic leaders — officially started construction on a $2.9 million community center and sports complex that also will serve as the new Dixon Park District headquarters.

The centerpiece of the project is the community room, billed as the hub from which all the park district’s activities will originate.

Emotions got the better of Long, executive director of the park district, first, while on stage as he thanked his family while describing working through vacations and days off to keep the project on track.

Then, after the ceremony and all the picture-taking, Long stepped back and had a quiet moment with his mother, who sat with the dignitaries in the front row.

The guy who served as the district’s maintenance director for nearly three decades before moving into the lead position long has envisioned such a place. Conviction and dedication are turning conversation and discussion into reality.

“It speaks to me,” said Long. “I’ve lived here all my life, for 51 years. Dixon’s wanted this. Dixon’s tried to do this. Dixon’s been promised this. Dixon’s getting it.”

There’s bare ground and tire tracks made by earth-moving machines where there was green grass. By summer, the construction firm of Ringland-Johnson and its partners will have erected a steel and concrete structure in place that will serve as a focus for family and athletic activities.

“So that’s why I’m so emotional on the stage today,” Long said. “My heart’s in it. We’ve been working on this for two solid years during COVID. When everything else is locked down, we’re still having meetings. Six feet apart of course, but we’re having meetings to keep this thing going.”

Meetings to galvanize, organize and keep things moving, especially with his partners at the park district: Seth Nicklaus who came on board as recreation director and said this place will be so kids “are made to feel welcome,” whether it’s sports or the arts or a family activity, and Ron Pritchard, board president, who recognized that Long was the person to lead such an effort.

Many others were on hand: Dirk Meminger, president and CEO of Sauk Valley Bank; Danny Langloss, city manager; Aaron Gold, assistant vice president of Speer Financial, Brett and Julie Nicklaus, Seth’s parents and owners of Trinity Financial, who bid for and received naming rights for the community room; Brent Johnson of Ringland-Johnson; Jason Stoll, principal branch manager of Fehr Grahm; and Dre Jackson and Riley Abell, Dixon High School students representing the community youth.

It was Abel, in his comments, who said a completed center, with its gym, will be welcome. “Finding gym space has been difficult, especially during COVID,” he said.

Other people were mentioned, of course, family and friends, longtime employees of the park district and their partners. Civic contributions were mentioned, too.

“And I got a great support team helping me out,” Long said. “You can see that from people on the stage today. And the number of people that showed up. It’s just a great thing for Dixon.”

About 100 people attended the ceremony, held in the parking lot for the adjoining water park. At the nearby shelter, people could put on virtual reality goggles and do a “walk through” of the facility, to see what it will be like once it’s built. It was so engrossing that Jack Skrogstad, who has experienced VR tours before when he was Lee County Jail administrator, had to be stopped when he actually stepped forward toward the viewer.

“You point the arrow and you can actually see what’s inside,” Skrogstad said. “Matter of fact, I started to walk. Then they said, ‘Jack you forgot, you can’t walk, you’ll run into the table.’ It’s a neat little tool they use to give a sense of where everything is going to be at. It was interesting.”

Ringland-Johnson will pour concrete in two weeks, and let it set all winter. They start building in earnest in the spring.

Johnson and Long said the timetable for getting the steel needed for the framing, which is being manufactured by Nucor in Norfolk, Nebraska, is up in the air. Pre-COVID, an order this size would take six weeks. Now, in an era of supply-chain shortages? Johnson said this and other commodities, such as rising fuel prices, are challenges. But the goal is to finish, perhaps by June, no later than in July.

“We’ve guaranteed it to the park district,” Johnson said.

In his closing remarks, Long spoke of the quality of leadership that was needed to make this project happen.

“A leader is someone who is not afraid to raise your hand,” he said, motioning to the people gathered. “These people have done that.”