PARIS – A committee working to create a community recreation center in the Oxford Hills is holding a meeting to drum up enthusiasm for the project.

A public meeting and video presentation about a potential recreation center will be held at 7 p.m. Monday, May 5, in Presentation Room 116-118 at Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School.

Angela Bancroft, a member of the Greater Oxford Hills Recreation Center Organizing Committee, said she hopes for a good turnout for the meeting.

“We really feel that there is support and a positive feeling in this area for this type of thing,” she said.

The meeting will discuss the results of a needs assessment survey done by officials of the national YMCA last summer.

Bancroft declined to give results of the survey, saying she wanted to save that for the meeting. But she said the responses from the group of around 50 people from various community sectors were “very interesting” and encouraging.

A 10-question survey that kicked off the committee’s efforts two years ago ranked development of a public swimming pool as the most favored feature of a recreation center, Bancroft said. But even without a swimming pool, support for development of a community recreation center was “overwhelmingly positive,” she said, and the interest continues to be high in going forward with plans.

The committee, comprised of Bancroft, Celia Dieterich, Jill Gabrielsen, Ellen Feeney, Jeanie Stone, Dana Chandler and Terri Martin, has researched other recreation centers throughout the state, especially ones with comparable population demographics to the Oxford Hills.

They will share what they’ve learned and talk about future plans. For more information, phone Bancroft at 743-0781 or Dieterich at 743-8166.

ggeraghty@sunjournal.com