WESTBROOK – The Westbrook Community Center is $750,000 richer thanks to a contribution from the Cornelia Warren Community Association on Wednesday afternoon.

According to John Bernier, chairman of the board of the association, the organization presented the news of the gift to Mayor Colleen Hilton, City Administrator Jerre Bryant and Maria Dorn, director of the community center, in a meeting on Wednesday. Bernier said it is the largest amount of money the association has ever awarded to a single project.

Bryant said the gift would be paid in three annual installments of $250,000.

The Westbrook Community Center is located in the former junior high school building on Bridge Street.

Hilton said the news of the donation came as a very welcome surprise. “I’m just absolutely thrilled,” she said, acknowledging the work of the committee that worked for some time to come up with a plan for the building. “In these tough economic times it’s just a remarkable gift for us.”

Bernier said the city applied for the money last year. After reviewing the application, meeting with the mayor and visiting the center, the board felt it was a good match for the association’s mission, which was established through an endowment in Warren’s will establishing a fund to be used toward educational and recreational resources for the people of the city.

“It absolutely perfectly fits the mandates of the fund,” Bernier said. “It has to do with recreation, athletics and community and social improvements to Westbrook.”

He said that this award would not end the Warren Fund, though he declined to say how much money remained after this gift.

The money comes with no specific guidelines on how it is to be spent, other than it must be used for the community center. Bernier said the city asked for $750,000, which is the approximate cost of the necessary roof repairs to the building.

Hilton said when the city applied for the money, they knew $750,000 was a very large amount to ask for, but she said she knew it was a worthwhile project. “We thought that (amount) was a stretch,” she said. “But we thought it was a good (project).”

One thing Bernier said was important to the association in approving the award was that the city had already allocated a significant amount of money to the project. Hilton said on Wednesday that the city has projected the total cost of the renovations of the community center at about $4 million and, including the Warren gift, the city has already raised just over $2 million for the project.

Bernier said he hoped others would follow the association’s lead and continue to help support the community center as it gets off the ground.

“We’re helping out,” he said. “We’re hoping others help out as well.”