JILL SCHRAMM/MDN Briselda Hernandez with Souris Basin Planning Council and Brandi Larson and Taryn Lumley with Elevate Stanley are a leading grassroots effort with the goal of someday building a community center in Stanley.

STANLEY – The Stanley community has imagined the construction of a recreation, wellness and gathering center for a long time. For a local grassroots group that recently grasped onto that idea, now might very well be the time.

Under the banner of Elevate Stanley, a group of citizens has come together to gauge community sentiment, consider input and determine next steps toward making the vision of a multi-use community center a reality.

“I think Stanley needs something like that,” said Taryn Lumley with Elevate Stanley and president of the Sibyl Center. “Life is short. You go for it. If it’s possible, why wouldn’t you? Because you’re probably going to regret it if you don’t.”

Currently, the group is pursuing a feasibility study.

Brandi Larson with Elevate Stanley, who serves on the Stanley Park Board, said the study will measure the potential for a combined recreation and event center. It will look at the feasibility of hosting conventions, safety trainings, exhibitions and concerts as well as offerings such as volleyball or pickleball and activities for all ages. It could include sports simulators and a walking track and serve as a storm shelter when needed.

“If you have a facility like that, too, you can draw in people from other communities,” Larson said.

A location for a center hasn’t been definitively identified. However, Larson said it is important the property be capable of handling future expansion, particularly if the project is to be accomplished in phases.

Although it’s not the community’s first conversation about a community center, Elevate Stanley sees stronger local support today than has existed since ideas began to percolate at least 13 years ago.

Larson said past efforts to launch a project never got off the ground, but enlisting the help of the regional Souris Basin Planning Council this time around could be a game-changer.

Briselda Hernandez, executive director for Souris Basin Planning Council, said SBPC came on board through the work it already was doing with the Mountrail County Job Development Authority.

When invited into the conversation, Hernandez said, SBPC helped the community first take a step back to refocus discussion around community priorities. Through surveys and a public meeting, a community center concept rose to top priority, along with economic opportunity that supports business and tourism.

Elevate Stanley aims to tackle those priorities, starting with the community center. SBPC’s role is to provide the administration to expand the capacity of the volunteer group, Hernandez said.

“We have worked with other communities, other projects. We can use similar tools and things that we’ve already created,” Hernandez said.

SBPC’s expertise also is being relied on to help secure funding and find a consultant to conduct a feasibility study.

Hernandez said a study can alleviate concerns about what is possible, what a community center would cost and how it might be operated. A study will determine what it will take to get there and whether phasing a project is required, she said.

“Long-term sustainability is important – being able to answer that as thoughtfully as possible. Obviously, we can’t project everything. There are a lot of unknowns. But we can at least prepare, and we think that the feasibility study is a way to illustrate that,” Hernandez said.

“We probably will have to continue to collect feedback from the community during that process because there is a dream board, but then there’s also reality,” she added. “Another part of this, too, is to continue to engage the community in the process so that we continue to have buy-in.”

Hernandez noted community facilities, especially in rural communities, need to be multi-use and have wide appeal.

“It’s a community gathering space. It’s a social gathering space for people of all ages and abilities,” she said.

Lumley imagines a place where people gather to socialize over coffee, or moms meet up to talk while the children enjoy an indoor playground. He envisions an event center that would allow the Sibyl Center to expand its arts programming. The Sibyl seats about 210 people, but there are opportunities to draw entertainment that could attract 500-600 people if the right venue existed, he said.

Larson added that her wish list includes restaurant space for lease.

Elevate Stanley received about 200 responses to a survey asking community members for their thoughts for a facility.

Hernandez said the goal is to have a concept developed through the feasibility study by the end of the summer. It then can be laid out to the community, and key stakeholders can be identified for potential funding for the next step, she said.

“We want to get the ball rolling on the next step, regardless if it’s as big of a project as we hope, or as small as we can do at the time,” Larson said. “We don’t know, but to be able to start making these plans by the end of the summer is a good goal for us.”

Larson said the advantage of a grassroots group leading the charge is it is free of the limitations, tight resources and time constraints of government boards. It also gives the community a sense of ownership, she said.

“We’re just regular people in the community,” Lumley added. “I like that.”

Looking at the wealth the Bakken has created for northwestern North Dakota and the state, a community center for Stanley is a reasonable goal, Lumley said.

“We’ve got to push that this is something worth putting some of that wealth into,” he said. “I think we deserve something like this.”