Orion Township opens new pocket park and renamed athletic club

It is the Orion Recreation Middle.

On Nov. 12, Orion Township unveiled the newly renamed middle, previously the Nice Lakes Athletic Membership.

The town’s Parks and Recreation Division hosted a contest to rename the renovated membership at 3800 S. Baldwin Highway.

“In Orion Township, we put our cash the place the parks are,” Orion Township Supervisor Chris Barnett stated on the occasion. “Sure, we’ve a whole lot of development. And a neighborhood must develop. However what we have executed in Orion is unprecedented in our complete state within the final fifteen years.”

The municipality purchased the membership for $9 million in December 2023 after the constructing went into receivership.

The Lake Orion Faculty District then bought it for $3 million in October 2024, however the municipality will nonetheless personal the trail and land east of the constructing to the Pontiac Path.

The constructing might be residence to the Orion Township Parks and Recreation places of work, the Orion Space Chamber of Commerce, the Orion Township Senior Middle and a department of the Orion Township Public Library.

U.S. Senator Elissa Slotkin despatched a video message that was performed in the course of the ceremony.

“I noticed firsthand that Orion Township is a spot the place folks attempt to make life simpler for themselves and for one another. Everyone seems to be keen to place within the effort to make this occur. It is an important place,” Slotkin stated. “That’s precisely why I’m so excited to congratulate you all on the opening of your neighborhood recreation middle.”

Earlier than the title was unveiled, the town held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the brand new Heritage Park pocket park.

The $25,000 grant-funded undertaking on the Baldwin Hall at 3345 Pasadena Highway contains native crops, bushes, birdhouses, native historical past reveals and a swing produced from a repurposed wind turbine painted by native artist and Clarkston artwork trainer Ryanne Kelley.