BUTTE - After 25 years, the Butte Civic Center is getting a new basketball court thanks to a generous donation from Town Pump, and officials here say this new court is going to be a slam dunk.
“You know, this is custom, it’s totally custom. Custom to Butte, Montana. Town Pump, of course, I can’t say enough about them. They wanted it special for the kids,” Butte Civic Center Manager Bill Melvin said.
The crew installed the new $250,000 court that was donated by Town Pump to replace the floor that was installed in 2000. The old floor was moved to the civic center's annex to replace an even older court.
New court, who dis? 🏀✨ Butte Civic Center just got a stunning $250,000 custom basketball court
“Well, it was time. The floor needs resurfacing; the one in the back was worn out completely. It was an original installation from 73 years ago,” Melvin said.
The new maple wood court was built by Wisconsin-based Aacer Flooring, and the company’s co-owner was there to help install it with a crew from Butte.
“They’re doing great. I go on every new floor that we install or that we sell, I go on the initial setup, and this is one of the easier setups,” Aacer Co-owner Jon Baseman said.
Melvin said the new court comes at a good time, because the civic center just signed a two-year contract to host the Frontier Conference’s men’s and women's basketball tournaments.
“We would have had to do a complete resurfacing of striping, because we did not have the college stripes on the floor,” Melvin said.
The civic center also hosts high school basketball and Special Olympics tournaments. Butte event worker Ralph Semsac is excited about the new floor.
“It’s put together very solidly; it has expansion joints in it, so it’s designed to survive well over the years. So, I hope it lasts 100 years. Well, we’ll take good care of it so it does,” said Semsac.
The public is invited to a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new court on Nov. 18th at 4 p.m.
