- The city of Alachua finalized design plans for the new Hathcock Community Center, but construction depends on 2026-27 budget funding.
- The original Hathcock Center was closed and demolished due to moisture damage and ADA violations costing $300,000 to fix.
- A community survey showed 81% would watch livestreamed meetings and 63% want funding from the existing budget.
The city of Alachua has finalized design plans for a new Cleather H. Hathcock Sr. Community Center, but construction depends on whether officials can find funding in the city’s 2026-27 budget. The plans, which are ready to go out for bid, were presented to the City Commission during its regular meeting Monday.
Architect Barnett Chenault of Monarch Design Group presented the plans and said they aimed to take into account feedback from the City Commission and other community groups like the Senior Resources Advisory Board.
Chenault highlighted how the new building would have a wrap-around porch iconic to the center’s image, double the community room’s size, expand the kitchen five times its current size, feature an art exhibit and mural space and include more access points from the main road.
“Mr. Hathcock would just be thrilled to see this building,” said Commissioner Shirley Green Brown.
Plans to revamp the Hathcock Center have been in the works for nearly two years. The city closed the original building in February after discovering moisture damage and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) violations that would cost $300,000 to fix.
The timing ahead of the April election raised questions about voter disenfranchisement since the center served as Precinct 53 for a predominantly Black demographic.
In March, the City Commission authorized demolition and tore down the structure in May. But how and if the city can move forward with building a new center depends on money.
According to a documented funding request, the city asked for $3.2 million from the state in Dec. 2025 for the $3.55 million project, which was listed with a now overdue nine-month construction timeline from March to December 2026. The remaining $350,000 would come from the Wild Spaces Public Places infrastructure surtax.
Valladares said Monday that the state did not grant Alachua any of its desired funding for the project. When Commissioner Jacob Fletcher asked how it would be funded, Valladares said staff are trying to find the money in the 2026-27 budget.
“We will get it done, and so that would be ancillary funding that would support, but we’ll find funding to get this building constructed as designed,” he said.
Valladares also updated the City Commission on where staff is in the process of procuring and implementing livestreaming meetings.
He presented the results of a survey requested by Brown in June and delivered via mail with utility bills over the past weeks since then. The survey asked questions about the community’s current engagement with government meetings and how livestreaming could change that.
Of the roughly 400 responses, 81% said they would likely watch government meetings if livestreamed.
The main reasons for not attending meetings in person were not knowing the dates and times for them and having scheduled conflicts. But 51% said livestreaming would increase their government involvement. Most people said they’d access the livestream on YouTube or the city’s website and 63% said the project should be funded with the existing budget.
Valladares said no bids for the project were received when they opened in December, so the city directly contacted and negotiated with a vendor. The vendor would assess the city’s existing equipment to see if it could accommodate livestreaming and be ADA compliant.
Equipment assessments are the next to-do, Valladares said, and would cost from $17,000 to $18,000.
Editor’s note: This story was underwritten by a grant from the Rural Reporting Initiative at the Community Foundation of North Central Florida.