School district: Move gym in Coupeville
July 3, 2008 · Updated 10:06 PM
The bond issue has passed and the new high school will go forward. But, before you leap, please take some time to think so that you will be sure that what you are planning will be the right thing to do for the long term good of the community.
The plans, as I understand them, call for replacing the gym roof this summer. Later this gym may be expanded, a special purpose parking lot paved for the gym and possibly an overhead walkway to get from the high school to the gym. These are all costly items. Do these costly expenditures make sense for a gym that is on the wrong side of a busy road that is only going to become more busy?
Have you considered building a gym of adequate size on the same side of the road as the new high school and sell the present gym site? Prairie Center Market could probably use some of the space for additional parking. Lumbermens could possibly use the rest for expansion. Or, another party might want to buy the whole thing. Funds from the sale plus all the other avoided costs would probably cover the cost of a new gym and the result would be much safer for the school children as well as produce a more efficient traffic flow.
Please carefully consider this and other options before you invest a great deal of taxpayer dollars into something that may only make a bad situation worse.
Robert O. Brown
Coupeville
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