Rec center adds new dimension to city

Mathis Winkler

Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2001 | 9:03 a.m.

When Terrie Cordoza went to work for the city's recreation department in 1975, she helped open North Las Vegas' first recreation center on Bruce Street.

Now, 26 years later, Cordoza is overseeing the grand opening of Silver Mesa Recreation Center, the city's second, as recreation supervisor.

"It's been really exciting for us," Cordoza said Monday as she walked through the 41,000-square-foot building, which still lacks furniture.

"We've been the last (in the county) to have it happen to," she said.

Based on plans for similar recreation centers around the valley, such as Henderson's Black Mountain Recreation Center, Silver Mesa puts the city on equal footing with other areas, said Mayor Michael Montandon.

"I would love to say, 'It kicks us into the future,' " he said. "But I can't say that since other cities already have (similar centers.)"

With increasing competition between cities to attract residents and businesses, Montandon said it was important for North Las Vegas to catch up and offer updated recreation facilities.

"When it gets competitive, those are the kind of things you have to have," Montandon said.

The center includes classrooms, fitness rooms, a gymnasium and offices. An aquatic center with a pool that includes a water slide, lanes for lap swimming and a shallow end for younger children will open in May. Together with Nick Flores Park, the entire complex at the northwestern corner of Alexander Road and Allen Lane takes up about 16 acres.

Though Silver Mesa is more than twice the size of the original center downtown, Cordoza said residents in the older part of town won't miss a thing.

As the city's population has almost tripled over the past decade, people living in the downtown areas have complained that city officials are paying more attention to newer areas while neglecting the needs of residents in older areas.

Cordoza said she likes to refer to the center on Bruce Street as the first, rather than the old one.

Both centers will offer residents the same type of programs, although the extra space at Silver Mesa will make it possible to have more things happening simultaneously, she added.

Silver Mesa's size also impressed Debbie Nielsen, who currently teaches preschool at the Bruce Street center and will switch to the new building by January.

The move will benefit many of the children she works with because they live closer to the new center, said Nielsen, who checked it out with her 3-year-old son Derek.

A North Las Vegas resident who lives just five minutes from Silver Mesa, Nielsen said she's looking forward to the opening.

"It will be great," she said. "There's nothing like that anywhere around here."