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GILTNER Giltner residents have seen that long, yellow building going up for several months now where the old town hall used to sit.
But that doesn't mean they know the town's new community center inside and out. And that's what Saturday's open house and dedication is for.
"There's a lot of people who haven't seen it yet," Jerry Robertshaw, the project's manager, said of the center's interior. "It's our opportunity to show it off."
The event will mark the completion of the center after about five months of construction and more than two years of planning.
It's the largest project pulled off so far by the Giltner Area Development Corp. and the Giltner Alumni Community Foundation, both of which were formed within the last four years.
Robertshaw, a member of both groups, said the GADC, launched in 2004, carried the vision and organization of the project. The GACF, which formed as a branch of the local alumni foundation in 2006, helped pull together the funding.
The result: A bright, spacious building that can hold 320 people for wedding receptions, funeral dinners, pancake feeds, meetings or fundraisers.
The building's price tag of $630,000 to $640,000 won't require a dime from local taxpayers, thanks to a $250,000 Community Development Block Grant from the state Department of Economic Development and private donations to cover the rest of its costs.
"We just knew that people would come through and help us out," Robertshaw said of the fundraising effort. "And they did."
The building provides a larger space to host the wedding receptions and other events that were being held in Grand Island and Aurora because there wasn't enough room in Giltner, he said.
Besides its practical uses, the new building will serve as a showpiece for Giltner, several officials said something that shows the town of 400 can offer the best.
"It's something we can be proud of," said Casey Nuss, a member of the village board. "Everybody in town loves the town of Giltner, and I think this is another way for people to show that."
Giltner residents can count a number of similar community pride-building projects over the past several years a new water tower, renovated ballfields, a new housing subdivision going up.
Susan Sanders, the village's parks superintendent, was doing just that as she moved the village office into its new home in the community center Thursday.
"It's just a lot of little things that are making the town look nicer," she said.
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