SIMI VALLEY : New Recreation Center Set to Open June 20

With nothing in her new office but the smell of fresh paint and a plastic child’s chair, Tracy Engel is already hard at work in her new job as recreation supervisor for the just-completed Rancho Santa Susana Community Center in Simi Valley.

“I won’t be spending much time at my desk anyway,” Engel said, walking across the glossy floor of the 11,686-square-foot gymnasium. “We’ll have something going on in every room. That will require us to be up and about all the time.”

Engel officially starts her new job Monday. Her first action will be to get ready for a public dedication of the facility on June 18, with an open house that will include games, prizes and clowns.

On June 20, the center officially opens with summer classes in dance, crafts and sports.

Before joining Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District, Engel worked for the Conejo Valley Recreation and Park District for 10 years, most recently as program coordinator of the teen center.

Park district Administrator Jeff Anderson said Engel was selected from a pool of 55 candidates for the position.

He said his nervousness about opening the vast new facility had almost vanished after Engel agreed to take the job.

“I’ve been sleeping a lot better lately,” Anderson said. “She’s been in centers for 10 years, she’s got more experience than we do. We’ve never run a center like this one.”

Engel, a resident of Moorpark, studied recreation administration at Chico State. Her pride in the new center was obvious on a recent tour of the gray stone facility.

In addition to the gymnasium, which can accommodate three basketball games simultaneously, the center has a catering kitchen, circular dance studio, locker rooms and two large multipurpose rooms.

Engel said the district hopes to rent out the multipurpose rooms for wedding receptions and parties.

She said several brides had already reserved the space for summer weddings.

Pointing out warming trays, rows of industrial-sized refrigerators and an ice machine in the center’s catering kitchen, she said the center could handle any size group, from 10 to 1,000.

“There is no limit to what we can do,” she said. “We’re set up to handle just about everything.”

But recreation is still the focus of the center. Looking out at the smooth expanse of floor in the gymnasium, Engel turned to Anderson.

“We’ve got to get a ball down here,” she told him.