City officials, YMCA staff, and representatives of contractor Carl A. Nelson and Martin Gardner Architecture cut ribbon at Kalona Community Center. Photos by Sam McIntosh.

From kids playing basketball and trying out the exercise equipment, to older adults socializing in meeting spaces, Kalona residents are already feeling at home with the new Kalona Community Center.

After a year of construction, a voter-passed $3.9 million bond, and support from several organizations and businesses, the new facility is officially open, and city officials and YMCA staff held a ribbon cutting ceremony and open house Saturday for residents to check out the building and its amenities. Visitors talked about how they were excited to use the building as a social gathering space and place to be active, including resident Jan Truelson, “All of us need to keep moving, and it’s a wonderful facility, all we have to do is just use it.”

Mayor Ken Herington said the center is for all ages, and reflects on the project’s completion, “For a town of this size to do a major project it’s really exciting. I think it’s going to help the town grow and prosper and it feels good to here at pretty much a hundred percent completion so people can start using it, first of next week.”

The new building was constructed in the same location of Kalona’s former community center, and is attached to the city hall. It is a YMCA of Washington County branch, and other building partners are the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, Elements, Performance Therapies, P.C., and the English River Watershed Management Authority.