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City to enter into lease-purchase for Lions Club building
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Rincon City Council will hold a public hearing Monday night to discuss buying the Lions Club building on Lexington Avenue.

The city is in the process of purchasing the Lions Club building through a lease-purchase agreement with the Rincon Lions Club.  

The purchase of the building is expected to allow the city the opportunity to expand its youth recreation programs, add additional baseball and softball fields and enable the city to accommodate more leagues in play. It also could mean the addition of batting cages for day and evening use. The Lions Club purchase may provide more opportunity for growth such as a summer day camp recreation program.

“Our club’s only got five members left in it,” said Lions Club President Vernon Gordy. “We just don’t have the energy to put into promoting that building anymore.”

He said since they no longer utilize the building and the last renter has moved on, now seemed like a good time to sell it.

“It would be an asset to the city and we struck a deal with them,” Gordy said.

The club will manage the recycled paper boxes that they maintain in the area. Gordy said they raise a lot of money each year for eyeglasses and lenses, and he said that all the money they raise stays here in the county.

The Lions Club building will be managed as part of the Rincon Recreation Department and will provide more space for the daily operations of the Recreation staff. The facility also will be used as a training and meeting site for coaches, umpires and participants and for parent meetings and signups. It also could be used as an indoor soccer court for a winter league.

The outside area of the property could be used behind the building for some yard-sized chess and checkers and for shuffleboard for different age groups. The front of the property also could help to alleviate parking congestion at the main parking lot.

The Lions Club Building is currently used by a local Boy Scout troop for meetings and other activities, and the troop’s use of the Lions Club Building will continue for some time. The Scout troop eventually might move into the Vernon C. Hinely Community Center Building on Columbia Avenue once improvements to it are made.

The city is asking anyone with an interest in new Recreation Department programs or in the use of the Lions Club building to contact RRD Director David Wooten or City Manager Michael Phillips.

The public hearing will be a part of the regular council meeting, scheduled for 7 p.m.