Saratoga Springs Mayor Scott Johnson got an earful from the city’s South Side residents when they flooded the City Council chambers at Tuesday’s City Council meeting to voice their concerns regarding a proposed 42,000-square-foot indoor recreation facility.

The proposed $6.5 million center is slated to be built on the city’s South Side Recreation Field.

The facility will be accessible year-round with basketball courts, a walking track, racquet ball courts, a rock climbing wall and community rooms. The site will also feature a parking lot that will provide at least 80 parking spots for people attending the facility.

“It’s going to be a great addition and service to the entire community,” Johnson said.

The facility’s location, which was originally intended to be built at the West Side Recreation Field and later at a field off Weibel Avenue, was changed after Johnson took office in January.

Johnson, who grew up in the Jefferson Terrace, said the reason for moving the rec center’s location revolved around his desire to find a place where it would be accessible for children in the city who lack adequate transportation.

Nonetheless, residents of the South Side neighborhood in attendance at Tuesday evening’s City Council meeting voiced concerns about the facility, which ranged from traffic and parking issues to the effect the absence of the park would have on neighborhood youth to the facility being out of character with the community.

Even with residents coming out in strong opposition to the facility there are people that live and work in the South Side neighborhood who believe it would be good for the community.

Crystal Duval, assistant teacher at the Head Start in Jefferson Terrace, said an indoor rec center would be great because during the winter months the children are forced to spend most of their time indoors and the facility would offer a place for the children to go during the season.

“We offer support to low-income families and they don’t have a playground accessible in the area, so if we had a facility for them to go to, especially during the winter months, that would be great,” Duval said.

Duval was not the only one who thought the rec center would be a nice addition to the community. Barb Davis, a resident of Jefferson Terrace, said she thought it would be great for the kids in the area because at the present time there was nothing in the neighborhood for them to do.

Johnson said the facility would be open for both structured and unstructured play and the only fees incurred would be for the use of the racquet ball courts and rock climbing wall.

Although the rec center does have a possibility of impacting the community in a positive way, many residents in attendance at the city council meeting were just as insulted about losing their only recreation field as they were about the city’s failure to inform them about the project.

Ann Bullock, of 86 Lincoln Ave., said during the meeting that the residents had no knowledge of the plans to build the facility until Johnson addressed the city’s recreation plans during his “Saratoga Speaks” forum on April 24.

Johnson said he had not yet released the plans to the public because they were incomplete and he didn’t feel it would be right to release them before they were finalized. He expects the plans to be completed by the end of the month and he looks to present them to the public in early June.

At that point, South Side residents will have their opportunity to play a more serious role in the planning of the future facility.

“This project is long overdue,” Johnson said. “It’s time to put the shovel in the ground and put the taxpayer’s money, which is already paying for the facility, to use.”