COURTESY / WOODARD & CURRAN, SIMONS ARCHITECTS
The Auburn Police Activities League Community Center, expected to break ground in May, will be nearly five times larger than the existing center
Updated: July 29, 2024
Auburn breaks ground on Police Activities League community center
Photo / Courtesy Office of U.S. Sen. Susan Collins
The city of Auburn broke ground mid-July on a $9 million community center run by the city’s Police Activities League.
The city of Auburn broke ground mid-July on a $9 million community center run by the city’s Police Activities League.
The PAL Community Center will replace the smaller Police Activities League Center that has been at the same 24 Chestnut St. site since 2013.
The center will host the activities league and will serve as a hub for supervised after-school and summer youth activities and mentoring.
“For more than a decade, the PAL Center in Auburn has provided local children with a safe, structured environment to play and learn after school; receive food, clothes, and school supplies; and build relationships with law enforcement officers who protect the local community,” said U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.
Collins secured $3 million in Congressionally Directed Spending through the FY 2023 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations bill to build the center
Also attending the event was Phil Crowell, Auburn's city manager at a PAL board member; Mayor Jeffrey Harmon; police Lt. Anthony Harrington; Rita Beaudry, PAL secretary; and Leroy G. Walker Sr., the City Councilor who represents Ward 5.
Need for a community center
The police department established the league after looking at four years of crime data and finding that 23% of all crimes committed by youth offenders in Auburn took place within an area of less than half a square mile; and that 25% of all police calls for service and 28% of all youth victims were victimized in the same area.
The league’s goal is to transform the statistics and provide positive, horizon-broadening experiences for at-risk youth, according to the city’s website.
Auburn City Council turned over a vacant city property at 24 Chestnut St. and in the spring of 2013, the Auburn PAL Center opened, at the heart of the half-square mile area identified by crime data.
The center provides educational and athletic activities for kids after school and during the summer.
The center serves 30 to 50 children each day, providing a safe place for them to spend time and interact with police and other adults.
At 14,651 square feet, the new center will be nearly five times larger than the existing space. It will include a basketball court and teen room; multipurpose area, meeting and storage rooms; bathrooms and showers; and a commercial kitchen.
Woodard & Curran in Portland and Simons Architects in Portland are the engineer and architect, and the general contractor is Landry/French Construction in Scarborough.
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