Indianhead Village residents are getting a respite from the summer heat wave thanks to the grand opening of a village center featuring a splash park and pool.
Fort Benning and The Villages of Benning unveiled the new Indianhead Village Center at a ribbon-cutting Friday. The 6,000-square-foot space is in the heart of Indianhead Village and located down the street from the neighborhood’s primary grade school, Wilson Elementary School.
The splash park and pool are the focal point of the center, which has boasts game, party, meeting and fitness rooms. A renovated playground is adjacent to the center.
“This is by far our nicest pool and splash park,” said Ashley Druica, marketing director for The Villages of Benning. “It brings a lot more to the village, so families no longer have to drive around looking for a pool or a place to play " now it’s right outside their back door.”
Fort Benning Family Communities broke ground on the center in September, officials said.
Indianhead is the fifth of six villages on Fort Benning to receive a village center. The sixth is slated for Davis Hill and Bouton Heights, which project officers expect to begin later this year, said Phil Cowley, development executive for Clark Realty, the Army’s Residential Communities Initiative partner at Fort Benning.
Leslie Wood, who added her own personal touch to the Indianhead center, provided interior design work for each center. Wood, a former student at Wilson Elementary School, gave the center’s game room a team-oriented feel and a custom-made “Wilson Wildcats” sign in a nod to the school’s mascot.
Indianhead Village is currently undergoing massive renovations to update its 50-year-old, single-story brick homes into stylish, energy-efficient town homes. The neighborhood services enlisted Soldiers and families between the grades of E-5 and E-8.
Once complete, the project, dubbed “Operation: Renovation,” will make Fort Benning home to the nation’s largest ENERGY STAR renovation project, Cowley said.
Renovations on roughly 60 percent of the neighborhood’s 414 homes are complete.
To earn the ENERGY STAR rating, a home must meet strict guidelines for energy efficiency set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Among these, homes must be at least 15 percent more energy efficient than homes built to the 2004 International Resident Code and include additional energy-saving features that typically make them 20 to 30 percent more efficient than standard homes, officials said.
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