Thanks to donations from several local entities, the McCreary Community Building’s gymnasium now has a new curtain divider.

The new curtain, and mechanics needed to be able to raise and lower it down the middle of the gym, came with an $8,500 price tag and was purchased from NGE Incorporated out of Roland, Iowa.  City Administrator Butch Niebuhr says the original curtain was in tough shape and was becoming a safety hazard.

The Perry Lions Club started the fundraising efforts in November.  President Dave Wright says former Parks and Recreation Director Jeff Lamoureux came to one of their meetings and mentioned that they wanted to replace the curtain but it didn’t make the City’s capital improvements budget for the year.

Wright says he was surprised someone from the club made a motion to donate $500 to the project but it was great to get the ball rolling.

“There’s a lot of things like this I think we can do in the community we just have to work together… The biggest thing is you just have to be asked.  I think that there’s more people out there that are willing to give but this we hope is just a start to other things that can happen.”

Matt Ferrier with Bolton and Menk Engineering, who chipped in more than half of the funds need to purchase the curtain, says it’s important to show community involvement and allow people to take pride in their town and facilities.

Also contributing to the cause was the Perry Rotary Club, Raccoon Valley Bank, Perry Industries and Perry Economic Development.“Perry is a great community.  It has been a longtime client for us and we have a lot of respect for the City staff and the people of Perry.  We like to make it a habit to make sure we support the communities that actually support our firm as well.  It was an opportunity for us to give back to the community and provide a safe improvement to the (recreation) center here in Perry.”