ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — It was a race to the finish, but the city and staff at Lake Vista Recreation Center in South St. Petersburg wrapped up major building repairs in time for summer vacation.

On Monday morning, longtime staff members welcomed students back into the building for the first time since before Hurricane Milton. On opening day, they had 197 elementary students and 75 teens attend.

During the October hurricane, the Lake Vista Recreation Center took on 18 inches of water and areas were flooded with raw sewage. Contractors had to pull out all the flooring, much of the drywall, the basketball court and anything that was touched with contaminated water.

The total cost of storm-related renovations was roughly $1.5 million.

Teen Camp coach Regina Frazier was outside the center and all smiles Monday as she was greeting students. She says her teenage son has made lifelong friends at the recreation center and getting these kids back together once again was vital.

“Once you have those relationships built up it was inevitable,” Frazier said. “We had to be here and it feels so good to be home.”

Lifelong St. Pete resident Tahrell Jones used to attend camp at Lake Vista and now his 8-year-old son attends. He says the excitement his son had preparing to return Monday morning was incredible to see.

“He was so stoked it was almost like the first day of school,” he said. “His biggest thing was he likes to take his phone everywhere. He’s like, ‘I don’t even want to take my phone because I’m going to have so much fun with my friends,’ so I was like, ‘OK, this is going to be a great year.’”

Staff at Lake Vista say they have 35 kids on their waiting list right now, who they are hoping they can get into the program.