PONDERAY — It started with pools and ice rinks.

But the proposed Ponderay Aquatic Center has become so much more, and the group behind the effort is hosting a community launch event next week to unveil the initiative and share short- and long-term plans with the public.

"The hope is to have a community center that meets the needs for the community," said Michael DiBenedetto, president of the nonprofit Ponderay Aquatic Center Endowment, the group leading the charge on the proposed community center.

The public is invited to attend the community launch, set for Wednesday, June 18, from 5:30-7 p.m. at the Wellness Center, 30544 Highway 200, Ponderay.

"The proposed facility is envisioned as a cornerstone of regional well-being and emergency preparedness," DiBenedetto said. 

Key features include a community pool with 88-degree water, zero-depth entry, a lazy river and walking lanes. A competition pool would feature 80-degree water with diving boards, lap lanes, SCUBA and deep water rescue training.

It also would feature an NHL-sized indoor rink and seasonal outdoor rink.

In addition, there would be meeting rooms for community and private use, an expansive field house for indoor sports and large-scale events, a community kitchen, locker rooms, showers and restrooms as well as a full workout and fitness area, indoor walking track and could serve as an emergency refuge during wildfires or other emergencies and disasters.

"We need a community center that really meets the needs of the community," DiBenedetto said. "So now it's pools, ice rinks and a field house, but that field house is kind of a field house on steroids."

The vision calls for a facility that has a large community kitchen, bathrooms and showers, allowing for the site to be used not only for visiting teams but as an emergency shelter if area residents need to be evacuated due to wildfires and other emergencies.

"The fairgrounds is not safe because it's covered by trees," DiBenedetto said of the current site where residents are directed if an evacuation order is issued. "If you have a 1910 event, that is not where you want to be."

Plans for the center can be traced to conversations among various groups about programs needed or wanted in the community, among them additional pool space and an ice rink capable of hosting regulation hockey matches.

As plans began to coalesce, DiBenedetto said the all-volunteer PACE reached out to the firm that conducted the feasibility study for the Coeur d'Alene Kroc Center. The nationally recognized firm determined the community could use another four or five pools and three or four ice rinks.

As a case in point, DiBenedetto pointed to "The Pond," the outdoor ice rink opened by the city of Ponderay in response to community demand. In just a few months of operation, the rink had more than 13,000 visitors.

The group, which has been working with the city of Ponderay, said the vision calls for the center to be located in the area earmarked for a fieldhouse and year-round ice rink at the Field of Dreams recreation complex.

Baseball fields planned at the site still remain as part of a future phase.

The goal has always been to move the ice rink to the Field of Dreams site, but as various groups talked more, the focus expanded to include how to make it work. Enter the plans for the pools, DiBenedetto said.

Taking advantage of the heat generated by ice rinks, that energy would go toward heating a pool. Since the city of Ponderay had long planned to add a field house as part of the field's third phase, PACE officials took that vision and melded it into their vision for a community center.

And community is at the heart of what the project is about — both in the programs it would offer and how it would be funded.  No government funding or tax dollars would be used to fund the center. Instead, DiBenedetto said the effort is community driven and designed to be funded by donations and grants.

That means combining costs to build the facility with plans to launch an endowment fund with fundraising for both taking place in conjunction, and in collaboration, with each other. 

By combining the different elements together, and adding in an endowment fund to help cover costs long-term, DiBenedetto said the project not only delivers much-needed recreation programs but becomes feasible.

"The way you make this budget neutral is you collect things together and you have an endowment," he said. 

PACE officials estimate that two-thirds of the cost will be made up of building the facility with the remaining third being made up of the endowment. Both are key components that are interwoven and will help make the center both possible and a long-term success.

"It's got to be done at a rate that's sustainable and efficient," DiBenedetto said. "You have to have that figured out ahead of time."