Board approves $350000 renovation project of Kerr gym at PHS – HNGnews.com

The school board was in approval for the high school to update and renovate the Kerr gymnasium. The overall cost to the project is around $350,000.

The decision came after a recommendation by the Facilities Committee on Sept. 8, and was later reviewed by the Finance Committee at its Sept. 21 meeting the same day as the monthly school board meeting. The administration pushed for the project to be done now as they said it was doubtful that the funds would be available in the future without taking on additional debt.

The flooring project would be done by Baseman Bros., Inc., who installed the gymnasium floor at the elementary school. The company also installed the current Kerr gymnasium flooring system at the high school in January 2001. The fact that the floor is almost 20 years old is another reason for pursuing the project.

District Administrator Matt Shappell noted in a memo to the board that the floor is in poor shape and is arguably at or near the end of its life.

In a letter from Baseman Bros. Vice President and Estimator Vicki Marshall to Sara Michalski, Project Manager for Findorff Construction, it was noted that the current style of floor in the Kerr gym (Mach 1) has been discontinued. Marshall suggested using the Robbins Bio Channel Star floor an anchored system as it is the same thickness and no adjustments to the basketball backstop would be necessary.

Marshall also stated that the Bio Channel Star option has better characteristic performances it is designed to move up and down with the impact of the athlete as well as side to side to allow for expansion and contraction due to heat and humidity.

The anchoring eliminates dead spots as it holds the floor system down or limits the amount of separation between the pad from the concrete during humidity swings, Marshall said.

In addition to painting the surface of the main basketball floor, Baseman Bros. will also paint lines for two cross basketball courts, a main volleyball court (with two cross courts), and six badminton doubles courts.

Also within the project, the current bleachers with be replaced with new wooden ones as they are cheaper to maintain and replace than its counterparts.

The overall renovation would also allow for a larger visitors section of bleachers, making it the same size as the home side.

Itll be nice to have the visitors not walk past the home section of fans (when they enter), McCracken said.

Also, a benefit for adding more bleachers is for Poynette to possibly be able to host neutral-site games and sectional games during WIAA tournaments. Currently the gym is not sanctioned by the WIAA for those types of games.

The estimated timeline for the entire project was to begin toward the end of September with demolition, and then paint the walls in the first two weeks of October. The installation of the flooring is scheduled to be done by Thanksgiving, according to the districts timeline. Lastly, the installation of the bleachers, and any other necessary work should be completed by Christmas to finalize the project.

Other ongoing construction

There will still be possible renovations to classrooms at the middle and high schools. Each room costs about $20,000-$25,000 and consists of new flooring, paint, ceiling, furniture and other small upgrades.

The work will be done as time, and the budget, allows.

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Board approves $350000 renovation project of Kerr gym at PHS - HNGnews.com