It was awhile coming, but Wednesday, August 20th at 8AM, Valley City Officials and representatives from the Greater Valley Group, cut the ribbon on the new amphitheater across from the Valley Community Center.
“I’m almost giddy at seeing these things come about,” Mayor Arnold Leak said. “Such projects as the amphitheater and lake, The Vistas, The Verandas, and The Shoppes at The Venue, which is now being built, are the kinds of amenities that will persuade more and more young people to stay here."
Walter D. Shealy III, President of the Greater Valley Group said. “We love the Sportsplex area. It’s the most fabulous humanmade thing in the local area. Valley was forward thinking to do this and should be commended for it. Everything we’ve done here is predicated on it, and we want to thank the council on having had the guts to do it.”
The new amphitheater is an earthen facility similar to one that’s located on the Auburn University Campus. It’s arranged in several bowl-shaped tiers looking down on a concrete stage built above a small lake. Up to 300 people can be seated inside the new amphitheater. This will be a great place for outdoor music concerts as the music will be directed away from the roads and back toward Ram Stadium. An eight foot wide asphalt walkway will connect the amphitheater with nearby apartment complexes and in the future will go as far as the Valley Campus of Southern Union State Community College and possibly, all the way to W.F. Burns Middle School.
Architectural lighting will light the walkways at night. In the evening, the amphitheater’s lake will have a lighted fountain in the center that will reflect the triple-V of the The Venue.
(Excerpts from VTN article by Wayne Clark)
