June 20, 2017 - (Album) - A grand opening event for the new Portacool Park in Center was held Saturday, June 17, 2017 with representatives of City of Center, Portacool and a large turnout of citizens to enjoy the newly completed grounds.
Anyone attending was treated to refreshments including hot dogs prepared by Shelby Savings Bank, chips, drinks, popcorn and cookies handed out by Portacool employees. While everyone enjoyed their lunch, many children and young adults were putting the new basketball court to use with basketballs and soccer balls. City of Center employees were also giving out goody bags.
After the crowd had enjoyed much of their time at the park, city and Portacool representatives gathered at the entrance of the park to share.
David Chadwick, Center Mayor, welcomed everyone to the park and declared Portacool Park officially open. He explained Portacool Park's predecessor, Center Mini Park began with a donation from a local civic group and has continued to grow with the help of the city and others.
"Until this last year when Portacool stepped up and said, 'We want to make our mark on Center, Texas not just with our business but looking at our community and letting people know that it is our community,'" said Mayor Chadwick.
Chadwick expressed how he feels the park holds something for everyone in the community and in addition to all of the activities that can be enjoyed at the park, there are Portacool fans at a picnic area alongside the pavilion.
"Mr. Wulf, I'd like to thank you on behalf of the City of Center for the job that you and your team have done. Excellent job, could not be more proud of your involvement in the community and your whole team there," said Mayor Chadwick.
He was proud to be able to be the first to say only in Center, Texas, "Welcome to Portacool Park."
Ben Wulf, President/CEO of Portacool LLC, expressed his appreciation to the city including Chad Nehring, City Manager, and his team for helping with the architecture and design of the facility as well as inspiration offered by Mayor Chadwick.
"Thomas [Morrison, Sales/Marketing Operations Manager at Port-A-Cool LLC] came up and partnered with the city, so we want to say thank you to him for helping see this through from start to finish," said Wulf. "The people that I really want to say thank you to and that's the Portacool family. If it's not for what you do every day, this doesn't happen, and we want to say thank you to our past employees and obviously to our current employees and all the Portacool family members to come. This is what you've built, we're very proud of it and want to continue to be a very strong fixture in the community for many years to come."
