Photo by Chris Sykes Mayor Tony Vauss, right, stands with one of the Robinson School prep basketball players who have been practicing in the newly refurbished Chris Gatling Recreation Center, set to officially reopen to the public on Friday, Sept. 30.
Mayor Tony Vauss, right, stands with one of the Robinson School prep basketball players who have been practicing in the newly refurbished Chris Gatling Recreation Center, set to officially reopen to the public on Friday, Sept. 30.
IRVINGTON, NJ — The Chris Gatling Recreation Center on Union Avenue is set to reopen to the public Friday, Sept. 30, after extensive refurbishment, and Mayor Tony Vauss is planning to turn this into a major event. He was at the center Friday, Sept. 23, touring the newly redesigned and upgraded gyms, locker rooms and other facilities to ensure everything will be ready for Friday.
“We’re preparing for our grand opening, which is going to be Sept. 30, so we’re just doing a walkthrough, making sure we’re going to have everything situated for that day,” Vauss said Friday, Sept. 23, during his tour of the new Gatling Center. “It’s a great day for the township of Irvington. We’re just looking forward to having this facility up and running 100 percent by next week.”
Aubrey Ross, a township employee tasked with preparing the Gatling Center ready for its grand opening, said it has been a labor of love for the most part, but he also did it because it was part of his job.
“I work for the city of Irvington and we’ve been out here, working for over three months, to get the Gatling Center ready for the public,” said Ross on Friday, Sept. 23. “We renovated, welded, put up new fencing; that’s our job and the mayor said get it done, so we get it done. He looks out for us and we’ve got to look out for him.”
“I want to see my city to be nice. All my life, I live here in Irvington. And I ain’t moving from Irvington. The only way I move is when they carry me somewhere else.”
Vauss said he likes to hear that kind of enthusiasm because it makes his job easier. He added he’s glad the Gatling Center is able to serve dual roles in the community by providing recreation for township youth and generating revenue by being leased out to private entities, such as the Robinson School, which helps to prepare basketball players from across the country.
“This is a place where our young people come, get in shape and go on to bigger and better things,” said Vauss. “We’re just looking forward to officially opening up to the public again.”
The Robinson School coaches and players, who have been using the Gatling Center since it was refurbished last year, said they’re glad the general public is now able to see what they have seen of the new facility, adding that it is now a different and better place.
“There’s a lot more to the Gatling Center than what is happening out here,” said Robinson School head coach Seneca McCarthy on Friday, Sept. 23. “We basically do a lot of things out here for kids, young kids trying to get to college. We do workouts every day and we train here at the Gatling Center because it’s a great facility that has everything we need.”
Andre Camacho, who hails from Tampa, Fla., said he came to New Jersey to attend the Robinson School because “I came to hoop; that’s what I do.”
Isiah Collins-Brown said he came to the school from Monroe-Woodbury, N.Y., to work and the Gatling Center is where that happens.
“I came to the Robinson School to work hard and go to college on scholarship,” Collins-Brown said Friday, Sept. 23. “I’ve been playing basketball all my life and I’m a point guard. I’m working every day, multiple hours a day, strength, conditioning, skill work — everything to help me further my basketball career. And we do that work at the Chris Gatling Center.”
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