The Kewanee Park Board looked last week at plans for a total remodeling and expansion of the clubhouse at Baker Park.

The project, which would cost an estimated $2 million to $3 million, would include “extensive” remodeling of the existing clubhouse and the construction of a new wing housing a large banquet room that could accommodate more than 200 people.

Ted Legat, whose Quad-Cities architectural firm was hired by the park board to design the expansion, went through the plans at Thursday’s park board meeting.

The most visible aspect of the expansion will be a new wing added to the east end of the clubhouse, which will extend to a few feet from Cambridge Road.

That addition would include a 3,000-square-foot banquet room that could be divided into two 1,500-square-foot rooms if needed. Legat said the full room could handle up to 240 guests.

There would be new rest rooms (“No offense, your toilet rooms could use some help,” Legat told the board).

The existing clubhouse would be “extensively remodeled,” Legat said, with a new dining area, bar and kitchen.

The plan also calls for installing two golf simulators which could be used year-round.

“Your clubhouse has a lot of history,” Legat told the board, but constructing the new wing to match the existing building would be too expensive.

“We can’t afford to build that way any more,” Legat said.

The second floor of the clubhouse, which once was an apartment for the parks director and has been used for park board meetings in the past, won’t be remodeled.

“That doesn’t meet  code in any way, shape or form,” Legat said.

A new parking lot between the back of the banquet room extension and 11th Street would be created, adding eight to 10 new parking spaces to what’s there now.

Parks Supt. Andrew Dwyer said the cost of the project is estimated at from $2 to $3 million. The district would issue bonds to finance the job.

If all goes well, Dwyer said, ground could be broken for the project by a year from now.