BIXBY, Okla. — A local community center will close this month. The Bixby Community Center has been around for decades, where almost 20 different groups meet weekly. It’s also where some community events are held.
But the center is closing its doors on Friday. Sally Keel is in the bridge club. She belongs to one of several clubs and groups packing up their supplies and décor ahead of the closure. Keel says the community center is so valuable to the community.
“You have to have a school, a church, it’s part of life in a small town,” says Keel.
Richard Gray and his wife visit the center twice a week for bridge.
“To have a community center is just as important to have a town center park,” says Gray. “I would also say that the events at the community center far outweigh what they do in the park.”
Along with the bridge club, the community center houses a preschool, aerobics classes, daddy-daughter dances, craft fairs, and the pins and needles quilting club. That group started back in 19-82. Katherine Madewell is the president. She says the quilting club, along with many other groups, won’t have anywhere to go after Friday.
“We don’t really know,” says Madewell. “We require a big enough space that we can at least put a couple of quilts up, and to be able to leave the quilts up so we can come in, quilt, leave.”
“We are going to try to have to come up with ideas,” says Keel. While some groups that meet here every week have already found somewhere else to go, others are still searching.
We reached out to the City of Bixby for comment.
Spokesman Bryan Toney tells us the building will likely be included in the city’s Downtown River District Revitalization efforts. Toney also says Tulsa County Parks has offered to work with groups to find new locations.
He says the city has no plans to operate a community center.
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