May 6, 2015 - The City of Center held a celebration in recognition of the John D. Windham Civic Center 5th Anniversary. During the five years the facility has been open it has been host to a wide variety of events of which many are annual and others more unique.
Community members joined with city representatives at the facility for a casual gathering in the foyer of the civic center. David Chadwick, City of Center Mayor, became the center of attention as he described the reason for everyone's presence at the facility. Tommy Hughes, John D. Windham Civic Center Director, prepared a video and slideshow for all present to examine many of the events held at the facility and Mayor Chadwick referenced the presentation's depiction of the use of the civic center.
"[It's] hard to believe that five years can pass by so quickly, but as I look at the film and whatnot that Tommy has prepared for us on our television sets it's hard to believe you could have this many events in five years in Center, Texas," said Mayor Chadwick. "I guess that's the beauty of it, five years ago you couldn't have had these events in Center, Texas in a place that was as convenient and conducive to being decorated and to being used."
Mayor Chadwick reflected on the inception of the civic center which he says dates back 25-30 years ago, "I was asked a while ago how the council came about this decision of building the civic center and I said, ' I don't think we ever made that decision, it just took place,' because it took 25-30 years of thoughts and dreams from the first fundraiser that the Lions Club had with the dream of having a civic center, and Lord only knows it probably would have been the size of a postage stamp instead of this grandiose structure we have now, but every time we turned around there was a desire for a facility such as this and our thoughts were certainly not as grand as this."
D.B. Golden, the architect of the facility, was present and Mayor Chadwick explained his firm turned the civic center into a diversely functional facility. He explained how money from FEMA and matching funds from the city helped make the facility meet every need the city had. The list of events hosted at the civic center have been endless including proms, birthday parties, weddings, showers and funerals, to name a few.
"It's interesting to come in to every event and you feel like your in a different location, because everybody can express their taste with their party and their event and it never seems to be the same thing," said Mayor Chadwick. "We're so pleased that our hotels were able to partner with us on bringing activity there, we have been I think just as good for them as they have been for us."
According to Mayor Chadwick, businesses have even flourished in the company of activities at the civic center and have in fact achieved a new level of service. Mayor Chadwick recognized Center City Council members in attendance who were Jerry Lathan, Jim Forbes, and Leigh Porterfield. He also applauded City Manager Chad Nehring for his in depth involvement in the establishment of the civic center and recognized Jim Gibson, assistant city manager, for everything he does.
A special recognition was given by Mayor Chadwick for one man who has been the proverbial juggernaut of all activities held at the civic center, "I can thank everybody for what all they've done, but there has been one person who has really stood out more than anybody else to make five years a success here, and that's Tommy Hughes. Now Tommy has half of the people who love him, the other half can't stand the sight of him. That's because he's doing a very good job, a very good job, and he does take this seriously, he does have direction, thought, plan, there's a way that we are going to do this and it's going to be professional."
