|
Onekama Board Seeking
Input on New Indoor
Walking Track
By KEN GRABOWSKI News
Advocate Associate
Editor
Published:
Tuesday, January 12,
2010
|
|
ONEKAMA --
The Onekama Board of Education is looking for some
community feedback on the new walking track that is
being added to the school as part of the $14.1 million
bond construction project taking place at the school.
Superintendent Kevin Hughes said use of the walking
track portion of the building will be free to the
public, but they need to gain some perspective on the
hours the community would like to use it. He said they
have created some survey sheets that they would like the
public to fill out on that subject.
“Our intentions are to have the walking track open to
the public at no cost,” said Hughes. “What we are
looking for is to answer some questions on when we
should have it open, because we aren’t going to be able
to be open 24-7. They can drop by my superintendent’s
office during the day to pick up a survey, and we want
their input to help measure demand.”
Hughes told the board that the grand opening of the new
addition has been set at this time for Sunday, March 7
from 1 p.m. until 3 p.m. (Later
changed to April 11) He said work on the
construction is moving along at a rapid pace right now
moving toward that date.
“When we take
over the building depends upon the construction being
completed, and the fire marshal allowing us to take
possession of the building,” said Hughes. “The committee
is finalizing the agenda for that grand opening right
now, but it will all depend upon two things, which are
the pace of the construction being finished, and the
fire marshal’s approval. We are going to have kids
involved, the building team involved and it will be
similar to kickoff campaign we ran back at the
beginning.”
Board members were also given an update by Hughes on a
discussion he had with West Shore Medical Center’s Donn
Lemmer and West Shore Health Connection’s Dursa Marshal
about the possibility of working together on some
activities in the fitness area of the school once it is
completed. |
“It was a meeting where we
just did some brainstorming on things that might be
possible, as it is just vision right now,” said Hughes.
“I do feel there is some interest there, and we did talk
about possibly doing some classes with skilled trained
people. They did seem eager to work with us, but we have
to remember that using skilled instructors there might
be a nominal fee for those classes.”
Anticipation is also
growing among the board as they prepare for the opening.
Members and several people from the public took a tour
of the site with the architect and construction manager
following their meeting to catch up with the progress
that has taken place in the past month.
Another item that came up
for discussion at Monday’s meeting was a report from the
committee working on facility use policy. Board members
were given a draft copy of what the committee is looking
at recommending.
“In February, we are going to be looking at policy for
the fitness area, track and cafetorium,” said board
president Bob Evans. “This campus is really for the
community, so we want to make sure we have covered all
our bases, and then do our best to adhere to it.”
He pointed out that those areas could be completed
before some of the other areas, and they need to have
that part of the policy in place and ready to go.
However, he added that it will be probably be a work in
progress in the early stages of the building opening.
Fellow board member Sally
Koon said she was pleased with what she saw in the
agreement. The board is not looking to make money on the
facility, but there will be liability involved and they
want to cover the costs.
“It looked good, and included all the things that we had
talked about needing to be in there,” said Koon.
|
