By Fallan Patterson
Staff Writer

Supporters of the Marydia Community Center didn’t allow the overcast, misty weather to dampen their excitement last month during the groundbreaking of the long-awaited facility.

After 16 years of working with Osceola County commissioners and staff, Marydia residents cheered as the ceremonial dirt flew from the site of a former Osceola County Fire Rescue station at 707 Sawdust Trail.

The former fire station will be renovated into a 4,700-square-foot, $750,000 facility and house a warming kitchen and space for a computer lab, job skills building and tutoring assistance. There also will be an on-site playground and landscaping to  replace the cracked asphalt.

The county expects it to open by mid-summer.

Bishop Gary Gray pushed for nearly two decades for the elderly and youth of Marydia to have a facility for potluck dinners, receptions, and homework and bingo games to commence.  Gray thanked by name the community member who made the community center a reality.

“I want to thank you for being there and backing me up. It’s our idea but it was my dream,” he said, adding he declined the suggestion of naming the center after him because it belongs to all the residents.

“We did this in a family way. This is not my community center. This is the community’s community center.”

Pastor Abdoula Holley, of New Hope Community Church, was the latest community leader to take up the cause, after Gray fell ill several years ago.

Holley couldn’t stop smiling as he looked around the cavernous space of the former fire station.

“I am so happy about this day,” he said. “It’s going to give our youth a place to come as a house of refuge and keep them off the corners.”

Holley plans to partner with the Osceola County Council on Aging to provide an outlet for senior citizens to get lunch and play social games like bingo.

“This center is going to bring our community alive,” he said. “This facility is going to be built for learning and for fun and games for our elderly and our youth.”

County Commissioner Frank Attkisson, who represents district 4, where Marydia is located, praised the community and his predecessor Ken Smith for dreaming of the community center.

“This is something that he has been about,” he said. “Ken Smith put his nose to the grindstone and said ‘This is important.’”

Smith showcased his famous passion as he spoke to the crowd, banging on the podium and making large hand gestures while thanking Marydia residents for being patient as they waited for the facility to come to fruition.

“If it weren’t for the people of Marydia, we probably wouldn’t have this,” he said. “This is not the end. This is just an extension of a lot of other things that have happened here.”

As a continuation of the county’s support for Marydia, Attkisson announced at the groundbreaking that after years of pushing, residents would soon have water and sewer lines installed.

Thanks to a $1 million pledge from Toho Water Authority, plus an additional $400,000 from Community Block Grants, the project should see a start date sometime this year.

New technology dropped the cost of the project down from several million as crews will be able to install the pipes without tearing up and repaving roadways.

The project is a result of a health department project, which found that about 10 percent of the community’s homes had failing septic systems without funds to restore them, officials said.

Marydia, located in the neighborhoods on the corner of Osceola Parkway and Orange Blossom Trail, is a predominately black, historic community in unincorporated Osceola County.