Fairview Heights to build recreation center, future of U.S. Ice complex still in limbo

The city of Fairview Heights plans to build a new $12 million recreation center that will open in time for the town’s 50th anniversary in 2019.

Mayor Mark Kupsky said it hasn’t been determined yet what, exactly, will go into the building. A committee has been appointed to determine what amenities will be available. Possibilities include an indoor swimming pool, an indoor splash pad, a walking track and fitness equipment.

“This is something residents have said they’d be interested in for some time,” Kupsky said. “We’ve been working on it for a while, and we’ve reached the point where we’re ready to come out to the public with our plans.”

Kupsky said the facility will be open to both city residents and people from outside Fairview Heights with a fee scale that is cheaper for people who live in town. It will also offer short-term rates for people passing though the city, staying at one of its hotels with weekly, monthly and single-day passes.

What wasn’t mentioned in the plans was the possibility of a new ice rink.

The U.S. Ice Sports Complex in Fairview Heights, which featured the only National Hockey League-size ice rink in the metro-east, closed in October 2012 when its building was damaged by mine subsidence.

Owners of the ice complex were unable to be reached for comment Monday. But they said at the time their building at 125 S. Ruby Lane was damaged that they were “optimistic about the future of the complex.” The site’s Facebook page hasn’t been updated since Oct. 15, 2012, and neighbors have complained to the city that the ice center hasn’t been maintained and is becoming an eye sore.

Kupsky said there hasn’t been any recent contact with owners of the ice complex. But he said the taxes and mortgage on the property continue to be paid, and the city has never been told that plans to repair or replace the building have been abandoned. He said that recently owners had been doing the basics to maintain the property.

Often, it takes years to resolve an insurance claim on a property struck by mine subsidence because insurers don’t pay out on a claim before they’re sure that settling — and future damage — has come to an end.

Even if the Fairview Heights development doesn’t include an ice rink — and the shuttered ice complex isn’t eventually reopened — metro-east residents will soon have a place to skate.

McKendree University has sponsored a new rec plex to be built at the intersection of Highway 50 and Scott-Troy Road in O’Fallon.

The complex, which is currently under construction on 45 acres just west of the school’s Lebanon campus, will include two NHL-sized rice rinks, a competition swimming pool with racing lanes and a diving well and a recreational pool.

Work to grade the land and prepare for construction began in November. The facility is expected to take nine to 12 months to build.

Despite the fact that the O’Fallon rec center will be sponsored by and named after McKendree University as well as playing host to the school’s sports teams, it will be open to the general public. People will be able to buy memberships to use the facilities including a gym, track and party rooms.

Kuspky said Fairview Heights leaders hope to pick out a site for the center by the end of 2017. While there is no preference for a location at this time, Kupsky said the eventual site will be somewhere easily accessible from anywhere in town, will be a large enough piece of land to host the center and will have appropriate roads to support the traffic the center will generate.

Kupsky hopes the recreation facility can be developed to be an anchor of a city center. Fairview Heights, which grew from a farm town into a retail hub around the St. Clair Square shopping mall, has never had a downtown or a public square. Kupsky said he hopes this will be a chance to fix that.

This story was originally published March 21, 2016 at 2:18 PM with the headline "Fairview Heights to build recreation center, future of U.S. Ice complex still in limbo."