-Messenger photo by Kelli Bloomquist
Dayton Mayor Dave Bills stands next to the groundbreaking for the new Dayton Events Center. The new building will be located near the current Oak Park Golf Course clubhouse and can be used as a meeting and party space.
DAYTON – For two years, earth and rock have been moved at Dayton’s Oak Park Golf Course as heavy machinery finally lays the foundation for the future multi-million dollar Dayton Events Center.
The new building will be located directly south of the current Oak Park Golf Course clubhouse and will be twice the size of the current building.
“My dream is that this event center will attract people from all over the region,” said Dayton Mayor Dave Bills. “I want the event center to be able to host weddings, receptions, graduations and birthday parties. We hope to offer a whole new menu than we have before. We want this event center to attract people to Dayton.”
The City of Dayton and the Dayton Community Club received an $800,000 Destination Iowa grant from the Iowa Economic Development Authority in March 2023 to be used for improvements at Oak Park and the Events Center.
According to IEDA, this amount represents 34 percent of the total project investment of US$2,372,703.
“We are working intensively on additional resources,” said Bills. “A new grant application was just sent out last week, and Jacob Bylund, volunteer legal counsel for the Dayton Community Club, along with members of our council, are doing a great job finding new funding opportunities and working on fundraising opportunities.”
According to Bills, fundraising efforts will begin soon to finance the building’s interior design.
“We have a great city council and they have been very supportive,” said Bills. “The Webster County Board of Supervisors was a great help in building the bike path and continues to support it. They understand how important it is to have such a beautiful place in a small town like Dayton.”
Once completed, the Dayton Events Center will house the clubhouse of the golf course, which just celebrated its first year-round operation.
“We kept the clubhouse open last year and had a very successful year,” said Bills. “The golf course and clubhouse have developed exceptionally well in recent years. The number of camping guests at Oak Park has also increased.”
According to Bills, the current clubhouse is still in good condition and the council is exploring options for what it could be used for in the future.
The timeline for the new event center is still open, but Bills said he hopes to open it to the public in fall 2025.
A unique change in this timeline and in Oak Park is that the area where construction began is normally used as a parking lot for the upcoming Dayton Rodeo. Bills said the parking lot for the new event center should be ready in time for the rodeo and cars will be able to park there. The area around the building foundation and piping will be blocked off from cars and rodeogoers.
“We have backup plans in place,” said Bills. “If there is overcrowding, we move to the back of the golf course or even to the old Landus site south of town and transport people there in golf carts and side-by-sides.”
Bills thanked Republican Sen. Jesse Green of Boone and Webster County Executive Mark Campbell for their support of the project and for promoting the upcoming bike path project that will lead to the event center.
