Gainesville and Hall County officials gathered Wednesday at the gates of the Frances Meadows Aquatic and Community Center to dedicate the building to its namesake, the first black Hall County commissioner, the late Frances Jenkins Meadows.

"Today we’re recognizing a woman who had a life of beauty," said Gainesville’s mayor, and Meadows’ friend, Myrtle Figueras.

Meadows, the Hall County Commission’s first elected minority leader, died of leukemia in 2002 during her third term as the county’s District 4 commissioner. She was 59.

Meadows’ family members attended Wednesday’s ceremony to cut the ribbon to the 2-week-old facility and unveil a plaque that stands at its entrance in honor of Meadows, and officials and community members spoke about the late commissioner they said dedicated her life to community and education.

"She loved two things very dearly. She loved education, and she loved this community," said Tom Walker, vice president for student development and enrollment management at Gainesville State College.

Walker met Meadows in 1989 when she worked at the college.

"... I can think of no better way to pay tribute to Frances Meadows and the hard work that she put into this community and the care and love that she had for this community than to dedicate this aquatics and especially community center to Frances Meadows," he said.

Hall County Commissioner Deborah Mack, who said she first suggested in a commission meeting that the center be named for Meadows, spoke of Meadows’ legacy in Hall County.

"Frances was a great lady, and she left a great legacy for all of us — not just one particular person, not just her family, but for her community as well, because she had the community at heart," Mack said. "... This is a cooperative effort for the city and county and something I know Frances would be proud of."

The $16.2 million aquatics center boasts an outdoor Splash Zone with two winding slides that stand over 34,000 square feet of outdoor swimming area, complete with a lazy river, a play structure, spray fountains and zero-depth entry. Indoors, the center offers an Olympic-sized competition pool, which is 25 yards by 25 meters, and a smaller four-lane instructional pool. The smaller pool, which is heated to about 85 degrees, can be used for physical therapy and water aerobics and makes it possible to offer swim lessons all year.

Aside from swimming, the center will offer various fitness classes and has 4,400 square feet of meeting space with a catering kitchen that can be used for business seminars and leisurely receptions.

While local officials call the center "state-of-the-art," Jimmy Gisi, the executive director of the Georgia Recreation and Park Association, referred to it as Gainesville’s "shiny red Cadillac." Gisi said the Gainesville-Hall County community was lucky to have elected officials to support such a project.

"This business is about making memories, and what I see behind me here today is going to make a ton of memories for the children and the adults of your community," Gisi said.

Melvin Cooper, director of Gainesville’s Parks and Recreation department, said the reality of the aquatic and community center would not have been possible without the combined efforts of city, school and county officials and residents.

"Yes, when community comes together, visions and dreams can become reality," Cooper said.

Throughout the cloud-shrouded ceremony, children could be heard playing in the center’s outdoor Splash Zone.

"Those sounds say more about what this place is about than anything I can say or anything anybody else will say from this podium," said Jody Cooley, vice chairman of the city’s Park and Recreation board of directors.