Ankeny's Neveln Center Benefits from Recent Renovation

An upgraded parking lot with more handicapped spaces and a covered entrance to the Neveln Community Resource Center in Ankeny are two new features that have improved client safety, supporters said.

The Neveln Center, Ankeny's long-time community service hub, recently completed a roughly $75,000 renovation project. The center, located at 406 S.W. School St., was built in the 1920s and is a former school building.

The refurbishment included improvements to the asphalt parking lot surface, more handicapped parking spaces, and the addition of a canopy at the main entrance. It also added a bench and a pond-less water feature in honor of Neveln’s first operation’s manager, Maury Hines.

The covered entrance was something the service providers at Neveln had long wanted, said Kevin Koester, director of the Neveln Center.

“(We needed it) especially in the winter with little ones and our adult clients coming for services in the bad weather,” he said.

The mother of a child fell in the street and was hurt after parking in the street and walking to the building instead of using the parking lot. Even when using the parking lot, clients had to walk across traffic before the improvements to the lot, Koester said.

“We had a serious concern with preschool drop-off,” Koester said. “I just don’t see it anymore.”

More than 20 community service organizations are located at the Neveln Center, which is under the umbrella of the Ankeny school district’s Community Education program.

“It’s a neat public-private partnership,” Koester said.

The improvements have been years in coming.

Work on the Hines memorial first began in late 2008, the parking lot overlay and handicap space expansion took place in 2009, the canopy was completed in 2010 and the memorial water feature was concluded in August.

The unofficial “hub” of the Neveln Center is the Ankeny Service Center because of its location near the building entrance, said its interim director, Steve Gibbons.

“We’re the first thing people see,” Gibbons said.

Gibbons agreed the improvements to the parking lot, along with the Hines memorial, were a good thing for the Neveln Center.

“It’s a more inviting place for people to come,” Gibbons said. “It’s more accessible and friendly. It’s just got a nice feel to it.”

Donations of time, labor, money and material brought the overall project cost down significantly, Koester said.

Polk County financed the cost of the parking lot improvements in exchange for reduced rent for its congregate meal site and part-time health clinic operating at the Neveln Center.

“It was a magnificent trade,” Koester said.

Monsanto, Veridian Credit Union, Praxair, Inc., Polk County, the Rotary Club of Ankeny, the Ankeny Building Association and employees from and were among the benefactors of the project. An open-house reception was held Aug. 30 to celebrate the completion of the renovations and honor major benefactors.