Refurbished ‘Youthie’ is nearly ready to re-open
The Cobar Youth & Fitness Centre in Harcourt Street, well known as the ‘Youthie’, has been closed for more than two years and during that time it’s under-gone a major transformation.
The centre was first closed in March 2020 due to COVID lockdowns and then as re-strictions eased, it was partially re-opened as a drop-in style-centre in early 2021.
By June 2021, it was again forced to close due to more COVID restrictions.
Once restrictions had settled, a decision was made to keep the centre closed as Council was nearing the end of their procurement process for the Cobar Youth & Community Centre upgrade and it was hoped that the successful tenderer would be able to make an immediate start. The building became a construction site in November 2021.
During the closure periods (when the Public Health Orders allowed) Council staff cleared out the building in readiness for its refurbish-ment.
Everything was moved to the indoor basket-ball/netball courts as this area was not part of the upgrades and so could be used for storage.
The centre will re-open next week with an official public opening on Tuesday and will go by the new name of the ‘Youth and Communi-ty Centre’.
It also has a new manager at the helm, with Council staff member Brytt Moore, moving from her Grants Officer role to Youth Devel-opment & Community Services Coordinator.
Brytt said the refurbishment work was exten-sive and included the re-design of a number of areas while many of the existing spaces were opened up.
The roof has been replaced, the entry area has been re-designed, big glass doors have been installed to open onto a back deck area, large windows have been fitted throughout, the floors have been re-sanded, new glass back walls have been installed to two squash courts, there’s new toilet amenities and a new com-mercial kitchen.
Originally the upstairs area at the centre was not going to be available to the public (as it could only be accessed by stairs).
Additional funding was however found to install a lift to the second floor which meant the gym could be re-located upstairs and a multi-purpose ‘Community Room’ was also created and both will now be fully accessible to all.
There’s also been a new accessible ramp installed at the front of the building.
It’s had a fresh coat of paint and got some new furniture and equipment.
The fence between the skate park and Youth-ie has been taken down to improve connectivi-ty to the skate park and also to Drummond Park.
Council invites the public to go along and see the new ‘Youthie’ which will offer first class facilities to residents of all ages.
See advertisement opposite for details of the official opening.
