By ALICIA FEYERHERM
Tiger Media Network
The USD 489 Board of Education voted on several expenditures related to the new high school during Monday’s meeting.
Digital Marquee for 13th Street
The first expenditure voted on was the bid from Golden Rule Signs for a digital marquee sign.
This $66,364.06 bid would cover the cost of a digital sign to be placed on 13th Street between Hays Middle and Hays High School.
“I think this marquee does a good job of helping us tell our story,” Superintendent Ron Wilson said. “This is a great spot right off 13th Street.”
Wilson noted that this bid does not include the price of the monument that the sign will be mounted on. However, Wilson anticipates there will be leftover stone and brick from the construction of Hays High School and the upgrades at Roosevelt Elementary School that can be used for materials. The only cost for that construction would be for the labor.
“There’ll be some costs for that for sure, but it won’t be extraordinary by any means,” Wilson said.
There would also be some smaller costs like permitting fees and electricity costs.
Board member Derek Yarmer asked for an approximate all-in cost. Wilson estimated the rest of the expenses would be less than $15,000.
Yarmer said he would like to see bids for the rest of the project before voting to approve this first bid.
The bid was approved in a 6-1 vote, with Yarmer voting against.
Weight Room Equipment
A bid from BSN Sports for weight room equipment for $146,710 was also discussed.
Wilson said the new high school will have a slightly smaller weight room, which will require different equipment.
The new weight room will have 25 stations instead of the 14 stations currently in the weight room. This efficiency is created by putting the machines back to back.
“It also offers more flexibility and some safety space that’s important in working in a weight room,” Wilson said.
Weights Instructor and Football Coach Tony Crough discussed the importance of the weight room.
“It’s used every hour, every school day, before school, after school, weekends, summertime,” Crough said.
Crough noted that the bid is just for the racks themselves. The weights and bars will be transferred from the existing high school, but additional weights will need to be purchased eventually.
“We’re going to be extremely short on weights,” Crough said. “Somewhere, they’re going to have to buy weights as well.”
Yarmer asked why this expense was not factored into the bond. Wilson said it is included in the bond.
“Well, I’ll vote for it then,” Yarmer said.
The bid was approved 7-0.
Scoreboards
The board then considered approval for indoor and outdoor video scoreboards. The bid and down payment for the boards totaled $777,680.
This bid includes a video scoreboard for the football field, main gym, auxiliary gym and softball field.
The high school video production team would then help with game day operations.
“It’s a great opportunity for our students to receive possibly some things down the road as far as scholarships that they could go to a university and be a part of the game day operations there,” Wilson said.
Marketing packages have been put together to help offset the price of the scoreboards.
“This is a first for us as being at Fort Hays we weren’t allowed to do any of this,” Wilson said.
Board President Curt Vajnar asked Wilson to share where the marketing revenue will go after the boards are paid for. Wilson said he would share that once it is decided.
Yarmer asked why this was not included in the bond.
“Simple answer, this would be $770,000 that’d we take out of building our bond, classroom space, square footage…,” Wilson said.
Wilson compared this to buying a house. When you buy a house, you still have to purchase appliances or other furnishings. Wilson said he wished there were funds to cover everything, but there is not enough bond funding for that.
“So we overspent other places,” Yarmer said.
Wilson disagreed.
“I’m not going to debate this,” Wilson said.
The bid was approved 5-2, with Board Members Allen Park and Yarmer voting against.
Tennis Courts
The bid to resurface the current four tennis courts and build four additional courts was considered. Stallbaumer Construction quoted $687,937.00 for the job.
“This will give us the opportunity to host some tournaments, a league tournament, could even host some regionals at some point,” Wilson said. “I think it also opens some opportunities for Hays Middle School students, some for PE opportunities and maybe future extracurricular activities.”
Wilson noted that this is post-tension concrete work, so it is much more involved than just pouring a concrete slab. By laying cables inside the concrete, it helps prevent cracking.
There will also be wiring in place to allow for lighting to be added later. Wilson is not recommending the addition of outdoor lighting at this time, but having the hardware in place at construction makes that addition much easier if the district decides to add lights later.
“This is something the whole district has been working on for a really long time and you saved up the money to do it, so this is a really great thing for our students, for our tennis teams and coaches, and for our school honestly,” Board Member Jayme Goetz said. “I’m very excited.”
The bid was approved 6-1 with Yarmer voting against.
Wrestling Mats
The board heard a proposal to purchase wrestling mats from Resilite for $57,714.00
The new high school has two wrestling rooms instead of just one. With that new room, three new mats are needed. These mats are the heavy red mats that would not be moved from the room.
Yarmer pushed back once again, saying this should have been included in the bond.
“You keep saying that it should have been in the bond, it should have been in the bond, but I just gave an example of the Bob Kuhn (Wrestling) tournament,” Board Member Ruth Ruder said. “Do you know how much revenue that brings to the city? Do you know how much revenue that one tournament brings to our city?”
Yarmer said the mats are needed, but it should have been funded from the bond.
The bid was approved with a 5-2 vote with Park and Yarmer voting against.
The next regular board meeting will be at 6:30 p.m. on March 24 at the Rockwell Administration Building.
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