BROOKINGS (9-25-26) — The Dacotah Bank Center Exploratory Committee is recommending the center shift to a hybrid live event and recreational facility.
Nick Wendell is Deputy Mayor… “What we brought forward was a recommended plan for the Dacotah Bank Center, where we take the existing arena space and we invest in indoor sport courts in that arena space that could ideally host youth sports organizations, their games and their practices and training facilities. We’re considering putting indoor turf in the existing holding barn.”
He said they’d like a series of upgrades to allow the facility to serve multiple functions… “Just upgrading the facility in general so that we continue to be a multipurpose event space. We host graduation, proms and elements of achievement days and those large-scale events. We continue to host meetings and banquets and those types of programs, but we really start to center on that indoor recreation need — in particular for youth sports organizations.”
Mayor Ope Niemeyer said this is just the beginning of the process and there will be time for more public input… “We may not be doing anything until maybe the third quarter of next year, and so a lot of the planning is going to go into this, obviously we’ll have community engagement. So there’s a quite of bit of time going down the road before we can anything accomplished out there.”
Niemeyer stressed the center will be honoring its commitment to 4-H… “We have got a 99 year commitment with 4-H and Extension in town here, so they will not be forgotten.”
City officials have said an indoor pool is not currently part of the plans for the center’s new recreational facilities.
— Brookings Radio News
