Photo by Erin Nelson.
The Trussville Academy of Gymnastics will build a new facility set to open by summer 2023.
Trussville has stuck the landing on a new gymnastics academy.
The Trussville City Council on May 10 voted 3-1 to award a $7.46 million bid to Stone Building Company to construct a new Trussville Academy of Gymnastics behind the Trussville Civic Center. Kyser Construction’s bid came in at $8.81 million and Blalock Building Company’s bid was for $7.66 million.
Councilwoman Jaime Melton Anderson was the lone “no” vote, and she said during the meeting that her vote simply came down to the price tag and nothing to do with gymnastics or cheerleading. Councilman Alan Taylor was not present for the meeting.
Mayor Buddy Choat said that Stone Building’s bid was for a 10-month construction timeline, with the hope that the new academy is complete by summer 2023. Trussville’s 2040 Plan, which was approved in 2019, had planned for an indoor 25-year pool and therapy pool, outdoor lazy river and splash park in the location where the gymnastics academy will be constructed.
That plan, according to the 2040 Plan, would have provided “the city with a place to have a swim team and host swim meets. It would also ease overcrowding at the current Trussville Pool.” Choat said there are no immediate plans for a pool.
“We’re thinking so for now, but it’s a ‘fluid’ plan and could resurface later,” Choat said. “Not a big demand now. Last count, (there were) 589 in gymnastics/cheerleading with well over 400 in gymnastics, plus about 50 on the waiting list.”
Trussville Academy of Gymnastics currently operates at 601 Parkway Drive, in the former Hewitt-Trussville Junior High School facility. The academy is led by Lauren Beers Stanton, who competed on the University of Alabama gymnastics team from 2013 to 2016.
