The Goshen County School Board voted to renovate the gymnasium and the administrative building at the old Torrington middle school at a special meeting Tuesday night.
While the projects will cost the district an estimated $935,454, Goshen County Schools Superintendent Ray Schulte said he was pleased the board voted as it did.
“I think that’s a good use of the money and it’s a good opportunity that we couldn’t afford to pass up,” he said in an interview after the vote.
The total cost of the administration renovation is $3,692,071, and the Wyoming School Facilities Commission has already allocated about $3.1 million toward the project and will not contribute more, Schulte said.
The district will use capital construction and equipment budget funds to cover the $568,391 needed to renovate the gymnasium, locker rooms and 4,000 square feet of space for an alternative learning room or weight room, according to district documents.
The preliminary timetable for the projects calls for designs to be completed in February and for the district to award bids in April, Schulte said.
While providing about 42,000 square feet of renovated space, the two projects will deplete the district’s capital construction fund – and that fact spurred a few questions from board members.
When asked by board member Ed Jolovich whether the district has other projects it could use those funds for, Schulte pointed out projects like the upgrade of the fire and sprinkler system at Torrington High School.
Board member Linda Meyer voiced concerns that the district possibly wouldn’t be able to pay for the upgrades unless the facilities commission allocated more money, but Schulte said there would be other avenues of funding the project down the road.
In considering its options at Tuesday’s meeting, the board could have also voted to demolish the gymnasium.
“It’s a lot of money to renovate that gymnasium and it’s a lot of money to tear it down,” Schulte told the board in describing the situation at hand, but the option to tear it down appeared to fall upon deaf ears.
“It’s silly to tear it down,” Board member Jim Eddington said in comparing the cost to renovate the space as opposed to demolishing it. It would cost the district $357,000 to demolish the gym, relocate utilities and construct a wall sealing the administrative building from the outside.
Jolovich further asked Schulte what kind of demand there was for recreation space, to which Schulte said the gymnasium area would probably be used from about 3 to 6:30 p.m. everyday after school for activities ranging from volleyball to basketball practices.
In addition to the district’s needs for the space, Schulte told the board that the city and county Joint Powers Board has expressed interesting in possibly leasing the gymnasium.
“Plenty of programs and plenty of people that will want to use the building,” he said in the interview.
Jim Hudelson, County Commissioner’s chairman and secretary/treasurer of the Joint Powers Board described the news of the school board’s vote as some of the best he’s heard in a long time.
“The Joint Powers Board will approach them (the district) for some arrangements for leasing the facilities,” he said.
If such an agreement was reached between the parties, “then the regular general public would have a place for weights and gymnasium use,” Hudelson said.
Joint Powers Board President Tim Pieper also said he was “very excited” that the board voted to renovate the gym and added that the board will definitely further discuss the possibility of leasing the space from the district at its next meeting Nov. 19.
“I think it’s really opened up some avenues,” he said.
Because he estimated the gymnasium won’t be ready for use for about 12 months, Schulte said there’s plenty of time for the parties to discuss leasing or rental options.
“There’s no urgent need to come up with some type of agreement,” he said.
For the complete article see the 10-30-2009 issue.
Click here to purchase an electronic version of the 10-30-2009 paper.
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