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The Mitchelstown Leisure Centre, which will be completed by next week and open by the end of the summer.

The building work for the long awaited Mitchelstown Leisure Centre will be completed by the end of this week and the centre will be open by August. This was the assurance given to The Avondhu by chairman of the leisure group committee, Ben Lynch.

He said that people passing have watched the centre as it was being built and recently have seen footpaths being put in place, topsoil being spread over what will be the spacious green area and surface dressing on the roadway, which shold be finished by early this week.

He added that the site foreman, Ben McHugh, has assured the group that the snag list will also be completed before the end of June.

"There has been a very enthusiastic reaction from the public to the sight of the all-weather pitches being constructed over the past week or so. The surface, measuring 70 metres end-to-end are more accurately two 5-a-side football pitches and have already led to enquiries about when they will be available for hire.

FIT OUT TO BE COMPLETE

"Inside the building, the massive 600 square metre sports hall is finished, painted and ready to go. We will be buying equipment for the sports hall and playing pitches straight away, so they will be the first elements to be available. All going well, the gym equipment will come on stream by the end of September, so that the fitness suite can be in full swing for the winter. Also, the meeting rooms and the multi-use activity hall will be available by then as well," Ben explained.

Ben said that while the building may seem finished from the outside, MMD Construction will finish their work and leave the Leisure Group with an empty building, so they won't be able to open it to the public until August, having to fit it out in the meantime.

"We won’t even have a desk or a telephone at that stage. We have to source and buy every item of equipment and we have to hire and train staff to become familiar with every aspect of the complex. We will open each section as we are ready to do so, so that the problems that inevitably emerge in any start-up business will be kept to a manageable level. However, we will be inviting the public to visit the centre over the next couple of weeks to get a taste of what will be coming on stream in the coming months," he said.

MANAGER APPOINTED

The manager of the leisure centre has been appointed and will take up her role from this week.

"Kristine Meenaghan has gained experience in various roles in the sports and leisure industry throughout Ireland and will be a great asset to us. We will start with a very small number of employees at the beginning and having received several applications already, we don’t intend to advertise formally, but if any Avondhu readers have suitable skills and are interested in part-time work, they should apply directly to the manager without delay," Ben said.

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