The Harlan Community School District’s Board of Education, Friday, approved a resolution for the Vision Iowa Grant Program. The board approved the final motion pertaining to a $200,000 Vision Iowa Grant that was awarded to the school district in November. Superintendent Justin Wagner said the resolution was the final item necessary for them to obtain the grant.

“There were four items they (Vision Iowa) would like to have back from us. One of them was some tax information. The second was total completion of amount money raised, $1.528 million which has been done. Then there were two other things, a resolution from the city which was already passed and we have the minutes for. The last one is the resolution from the school board basically saying the school board is accepting the funds and will adhere to the grant agreement.”

The Board Friday also heard a presentation from FEH Engineering consultant Matt Basye, with regard to the Merrill Field Renovation project. Basye said there would fewer seats in the bleachers, but there is room for future expansion. “Basically what we started with was we knew the turf was going to be done, the track resurfacing was going to be done and we wanted to closely match the amount of seating you already have with the budget. What we got here shown is around 2,400 to 2,500 seats which is a few less than you have now. But we are also going to give you options to add seating later when it does fit with the budget.”

The reason for the possible reduction in seating is due to discussion about whether or not to remove some seats in front of the concession stand to open up the field more. The project is not complete as of yet because the numbers continue to fluctuate as well as the plans have not been finalized. No board action was taken to finalize the project. However, Basye says the plan is to move forward quickly.

“The kind of plan for getting the project going and under construction is that we are looking to have a public hearing on Monday, January 6^th, which is a board meeting for you (school board). January 20^th you would be back to adopt the plans and allow me to go out and get bids. Then we would have bids come back mid-February around that time and the contractors would start around the first part of March.”

Superintendent Wagner said a public hearing on the Merrill Field project will be held as part of the Board’s January 6^th meeting.

(Joel McCall/KNOD)