Mayor Kenneth Nail rocks the broom mic as one of the first “performers” — along with public works superintendent Rusty Fields and Parks & Rec director Andrea Thompson — to try out the all-new stage at the Hanceville Civic Center.

HANCEVILLE — It’s been there since the 1950s, first as a munitions storehouse for the U.S. Army National Guard and later as an all-purpose place to gather — for everything from church singings to storm evacuations.

Now, the civic center building on Hanceville’s east side is getting one of the biggest upgrades in its short history as a municipal facility ever since the city rechristened the venue — formerly called the Hanceville Recreation & Wellness Center — as the Hanceville Civic Center back in 2016.

With even bigger plans in place for interior improvements in the years to come, the civic center already is looking very different than it did even just a few short months ago, thanks to a surge of activity that’s seen a paint refresh in the building’s auxiliary side rooms, refurbished heating elements in the main auditorium’s ceiling-mounted climate control system, and — most visibly — a completely remade stage area.

Walking into the auditorium, the first thing you’ll notice is that the stage…well, it looks like an actual stage now, instead of just a nondescript open area at the front of the expansive, gymnasium-sized room.

With help from architect and Hanceville native Tim Burney, the city’s renovation plan has yielded a new raised stage with space defined from above by a new, sloping alcoved ceiling — complete with recessed lighting. A dramatic apron above the stage sports a permanent ‘City of Hanceville’ signifier in all-capital letters, and areas to either side — formerly part of the auditorium’s open space — have also been enclosed, making the new stage the sole focal point for future concerts and events.

On a meager spending budget this year of just $12,000, the city has stretched its dollar via pro bono design work, employee labor, and help from inmate trusties to accomplish an outsized measure of renovation work that’ll likely add up to a welcome surprise for anyone who hasn’t stepped through the doors in a while.

Not everything is visible to the eye. One of the biggest improvements, said mayor Kenneth Nail, is a complete window-to-drywall enclosure and insulation overhaul in the structure’s west-and-east-facing walls, effectively stopping noise from events inside the facility ringing out to the nearby residential neighborhood.

“We’ve really tried to make it suitable for a number of uses all at once,” said Nail, who — along with public works superintendent Rusty Fields and Parks & Rec director Andrea Thompson — have spent plenty of afternoons investing their own sweat equity in all the improvements.

With most of the budget for this year’s upgrades already spent, and most of the work already completed well ahead of the start of this summer’s busy lineup of events, Nail says he hopes to continue improving the facility as money allows. If the city serves up a new round of funds next year, there’ll definitely be plenty to do.

“Our bigger goal is to enclose the side areas where doors open off from the main auditorium with hallways, and to do it on both sides,” Nail explained. Closing off the sides of the room, he said, will allow patrons and employees at services like the Red Cross of Cullman County and Knapsacks for Kids of Hanceville — both of which have space in the building — to come and go without disturbing any larger events taking place in the auditorium itself.

Down the road, the civic center also could get a new stained concrete floor if funding permits, as well as overhauls to its kitchen area and east-facing bathrooms (the western bathrooms just received upgrades of their own.)

Until then, the civic center will already be in great shape for the start of Hanceville’s Summer Concert Series, which in its second year will draw musical entertainment for three headline shows in the coming months. The idea behind the series, said Nail, is to offer something for everybody over the course of the event’s three-concert lineup. Last year’s inaugural season brought acts like Three on a String, Natchez Trace, and Southern Gospel singers The Kingsmen — who will be among the first groups to take the newly-refurbished stage when they return for their second indoor concert this year.

“We’ve done a lot in a really short amount of time, and I hate that we have to stop for now,” said Nail. “We’ve already spent nearly all our budget for the year, but I think we’ve really been on top of things with getting after these improvements, and using the city’s money wisely. We want to make the civic center a place where classes from Hanceville High School can feel good about coming home and having their reunions; where people want to rent out the space and enjoy some nice amenities right here in Hanceville. We don’t want people to always feel like they have to look elsewhere.

“There’s still more to do that we haven’t gotten to finish, just with the money we’ve had to spend this year. But we’ve already made a whole lot of progress. In another year or two — God willing — we’ll get there.”