The Melnea A. Cass Recreational Center is set to reopen to residents in June after four months of operating as a temporary shelter for migrants.
The state-operated complex has been closed to the public and sports program that use its facilities, leaving a hole for many residents, said Norm Stembridge, a former Roxbury resident and current co-chair for the Roxbury Strategic Master Plan Oversight Committee.
“It’s very important to the community for young people for elderly folks,” he said. “There are activities geared toward each age group. They look forward to a place to be able to exercise those activities.”
The complex is currently home to several dozen migrant families who will be relocated next month.
When it was first announced in January that the facility would be converted into a temporary shelter for the state’s influx of migrants, some residents voiced frustration at Roxbury, a community where the majority of residents are people of color, being saddled with a burden it potentially could not undertake.
Dianne Wilkerson, vice chair of the Friends of Melnea Cass Facility who lived in Roxbury for over 40 years, says that’s something the neighborhood sees far too often.
“We already have a disproportionately out-of-whack number of sober houses, addiction houses, recovery services that we’re providing. And we understand more than anyone the need for that service,” she said. “The problem is when we get burdened with that kind of societal responsibility the appropriate resources to meet that need never seem to come with it. “
Starting in June, a three-phase restoration project will also begin, with upgrades planned for the center’s bathrooms, swimming pool, athletic equipment, sound system, arena floor and more. On June 22, the swimming pool will reopen, and the arena is set to be open to the public again no later than Labor Day.
The complex has provided indoor and outdoor recreation, afterschool activities and athletic facilities to the city’s residents for 50 years.
Though Gov. Maura Healey had promised that the center would be returned to the community for local use by June, Sue Sullivan, the executive director of the Newmarket Business Association, heard from some residents who view the reopening plan as a welcome surprise.
“The fact that the recreation center is reopening in a timely fashion that the governor has kept the promise that it would be temporary and that promised upgrades at the facility are going to occur ... I think the community is feeling that they have been heard and that they have representation,“ she said.
