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Midvale » Peter Corroon couldn't help but wonder -- albeit jokingly -- if taxpayers' multimillion-dollar makeover of the Copperview Recreation Center had turned out right.
After all, the suit-clad Salt Lake County mayor could sink only one out of a dozen shots Monday from the center's freshly polished basketball court.
Maybe the hoops are too high, Corroon chuckled.
"Fortunately, you are a better politician than a basketball player," quipped Martin Jensen, spokesman for the county's parks and recreation division.
With a bit of humor and two red ribbons to be cut, the county reopened Copperview, 8446 S. Harrison St. (300 West), after a nearly $4 million expansion and renovation that added an 11,000-square-foot gym and an outside skate park to the complex.
The county cut skylights, doubled the size of its fitness room and opened the interior with more windows, brighter colors and a handful of cartoonish paintings of people playing wheelchair rugby or slipping down a tube slide.
"This is one of our oldest recreation centers," Corroon said of the half-century-old building, "and to see it with new life and vigor is refreshing."
The project was paid out of the Zoo, Arts and Park tax, which collects a penny for every $10 spent within Salt Lake County.
Midvale Mayor JoAnn Seghini called it an "absolutely critical" improvement for the community hub that serves not only as a recreation outlet, but also as a health clinic, a Head Start classroom, a food bank and a place to learn English.
"This serves a community in desperate need of help," Seghini said. "Now they have a place to play, a place to be and a place to grow."
As for fixing those hoops, Corroon confessed his aim probably was the problem.
"I was an ice hockey player, just so you know."
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