New Missoula Community Center One Step Closer to Becoming Reality

Having a couple of younger kids as I do, I'm already a big fan of Currents Aquatic Center in Missoula. It's a great place to take the family on a weekend, it's even better to swim in the winter months when outdoor activities are tough to come by, and it's a fun place to hold a birthday party. But what if there was so much more to do in addition to swimming? Are you aware that the eventual plan is to expand Currents into a community center that would provide a multitude of activities and offerings? And news this week is that the Parks and Recreation Board backs the concept designs so that's one more box to check on the path to making the expansion a reality.

Bigger and better!

Currents, in its current form, has been around for 15 years and the initial idea was that it was just the first phase of something bigger. That something bigger part has finally been put on the table for discussion and it looks like it would be a pretty awesome facility if and when it's completed. An article in the Missoula Current shows concept art and has a breakdown of what would be built around the Currents building at McCormick Park. The finished product looks like it would end up being about 4x bigger than the building is now.

After expansion, the finished product would include the following:

• a gym with basketball courts
• a creativity center
• multiple studios
• a community ballroom
• an outdoor performance area
• classrooms
• childcare facilities
• a running track

Not so fast, they're not exactly ready to break ground

It looks like a new multi-purpose center like this would be a welcome addition for all ages and different interests. Now we just wait and let the number crunchers figure out how the city can fund the project and then we can check another one of those boxes off the list.