By Bruce Sayler
Butte got a look at some new flooring for its favorite recreation room Tuesday and it’s a beauty.
The Butte Civic Center recently had its third basketball court in the arena’s 73-year history installed and the ribbon cutting on the quarter of a million dollar project was held before a crowd of fans, onlookers and other interested parties.
“Let’s hear it for Town Pump (the corporation that footed the bill),” said Joe McClafferty, CEO of Harrington Bottling Co., which tossed in $35,000 to the project to cover new scoring table costs. “No place in the state has had more celebrations and jubilation than the Butte Civic Center.”
McClafferty saw time on the original court as a basketball player for Butte Central and then played for Montana Tech.
The overall project came to $190,000 for the new Maplewood floor that replaced one installed about 25 years ago, which replaced the original built in 1953 and constructed by Butte craftsmen off blueprints of New York City’s Madison Square Garden basketball court at the time, according to building history.
Bill Melvin, current manager of the Butte Civic Center, led guests to the arena annex to show off the main floor recently replaced and moved to the annex as an auxiliary facility. It was refinished by the company that installed the new court and now includes markings for two pickleball courts and a volleyball court on the basketball court. The original court, which had been moved to the annex in the last renovation, was taken by the builders, Aacer Flooring of Wisconsin, for possible use elsewhere or, possibly, re-purposing.
The refinishing and move of the more recent court to the annex came at a cost of about $62,000, Melvin said.
Town Pump had donated $250,000 to the project.
“You can’t look around Butte and not see Town Pump giving back,” Melvin said.
The Montana Tech men’s and women’s basketball teams, the Butte High and Butte Central boys’ and girls’ basketball teams and the Butte Special Olympian basketball players were all on hand to try out the new court and the redone one in the annex. The seniors from those teams were charged with the duty of snipping the ribbon in the ceremony.
Bill McGladdery, Town Pump director of corporate communications, lauded the Civic Center staff for caring for the first two courts so well they were in service going back 73 years.
“The Butte Civic Center is the mecca of basketball in Montana,” Butte-Silver Bow Chief Executive J.P. Gallagher said. “There is no better place to showcase our athletes in high school and college. It is a credit to Bill Melvin and his crew for their care of this facility.”
The Mining City Duals wrestling tournament about a month away, two more wrestling tournaments after Christmas and the Frontier Conference college men’s and women’s basketball tournament in March are among the showcase events coming to the arena this winter season.
“It’s a big economic factor (for Butte) when we can draw tournaments, and the fans from across the state,” Stephanie Sorini, executive director of the Butte-Silver Bow Chamber of Commerce remarked.
The first basketball game scheduled for the new floor will be in a Dillon-Butte High girls’/boys’ hoops doubleheader on December 16. The Butte High and Butte Central varsities are to tangle there in a similar doubleheader on December 23.
