Tipton looks at auditorium project revisions

TIPTON, Iowa — Revisions to the original plans for Tipton High School’s auditorium remodeling and wrestling room projects have addressed to overcome objections by school board members and others.

At a work session, school board members learned that if new auditorium seats are 21 inches wide instead of 24 inches, there is room for 608 seats in the auditorium. With 24-inch seats, there would have been a loss of seating from the current 850 to 450.

To retain 608 seats, Al Varney, architect with Ament Design, said the space between rows in the balcony will remain the same but will be increased on the main floor.

To keep the use of one classroom, which was originally to become a stage makeup room, Varney said two 500-square-foot rooms could be constructed by extending the planned addition over the boiler room. He said one could be used for the makeup area and the other for stage equipment storage.  

Another goal of the revisions was to cut the $626,750 cost projected for the wrestling room. Varney explained that can be done by changing from brick and block construction to pre-cast concrete, which would cost $357,520.  Wrestling coach Matt Nerem asked for storage space for exercise bikes and other equipment. He noted that a wooden floor is safer for wrestling than concrete. Recycled rubber flooring as installed in the new weight room was suggested as being less costly than using a double thickness of mats.

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Tipton looks at auditorium project revisions