CALAIS – Representatives of the city and the recreation department last week honored a man who has done much to enhance the summer fun of the city’s youth.

On Friday, San Francisco developer Sidney Unobskey, who has family ties to Calais and a summer home in Robbinston, was honored for the more than $200,000 in donations he and his family made to upgrade the DiCenzo Complex, the city’s sports compound where swimming, baseball, basketball, tennis and skateboarding take place.

Unobskey and his wife, Nancy, were presented with two plaques, one from the city’s pool staff and the other from the community.

“We wanted to give a thank-you to the Unobskey family for all they have done,” John Rogers, director of the recreation department, said Monday.

The city now has a new swimming pool house, asphalt road, a renovated full-size basketball court and more. The complex also has a new basketball court for the city’s shortest players.

“Between the playground and the Little League field, which is the area we’ve designated for the little guys, we also built a little guys basketball court,” Rogers said. “It has glass boards and has all the lines painted.

“It is so centrally located that the kids from all over town can walk to the facility,” he said.

The Unobskeys were pleased.

“Calais is fortunate to have dedicated public servants like John Rogers and the staff of the recreation center,” Sidney Unobskey said in a printed statement Monday. “They start boys and girls off at an early age in athletic programs and the result is state championships for Calais High School. My family has deep roots in Calais and Nancy and I are happy to be able to give something back to the community.”

The improvements were needed. “We struggle with monies just like everyone else,” Rogers said, “and upgrading is very difficult. Maintaining is about all we can do.

“You are talking about a pool house that was built in 1956. You are talking about a basketball court that was here when I came here 30 years ago, so you’re talking mid- to early 1970s.”

Rogers said the Unobskeys also donated enough money to replace the batting cages.

“The stuff was going on 15 years old and it was wearing out, and this will be all new fencing and that will be done this fall, so this is all part of that program,” he said.

The planning process began three years ago after Sidney Unobskey saw the condition the city’s swimming pool house was in. “What we started with initially was to actually restore it. We got into numbers and everything and he thought he could build new,” Rogers said. “So it went from that to the asphalt to the basketball courts to the batting cages.”

City Manager Diane Barnes said Monday she was pleased the Unobskeys had stepped forward to help.

“The rec department and what John does is the foundation for what is going to happen later on in years for our kids going through junior high and high school,” she said. “You can see by our basketball teams that you have to start off early, and you have to have good programs in place and we need to have people in these programs. We need to have the facilities and it is just going to make our kids healthier, too, as they go through life.”

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