Plans for renovating the Glenwood School District’s activities complex were heard at a special meeting Wednesday night. School officials, along with members of the Glenwood Activities Booster Club, held a public meeting to discuss results of a feasibility study by Lucas Partners on the proposed renovations, including a new track and press box, plus improved entrances, exits and parking. Glenwood School Superintendent Devin Embray says the improvements are much needed.

“The facility has served us very well over the years,” said Embray. “It’s just getting to the point where it’s very outdated, and needing upgrades, and to the point where some major things need to be done. The booster club, in looking at that, felt that if we have to do a lot of renovations and a lot of upgrades in a lot of different areas of the complex, maybe we should do it in one big project. So, that’s what they took on, and did.”

While saying most attendees expressed support for the project, Embray says money is the big question. “This feasibility study came back,” he said, “basically saying that people were in agreement that something had to be done with the sports complex, they differed in terms of how grandeur that would look, and how much money it would take to do that.

“The feedback basically said, ‘we’re for it, we just don’t have the money at this time to do it all at one time. Is there a possibility of scaling it back a little bit, and also phasing it out over time so that we can accomplish the end goal of getting it updated, so it doesn’t strain us at one point?'” Embray added. Coming off construction of Glenwood High’s new auxiliary gym, and the city’s new outdoor aquatic center, the superintendent says residents may be leery of another facilities project.

“Those two projects are revenue bond projects,” said Embray. “It wasn’t a capital campaign project, but it does affect people in terms of donations–kind of a donor fatigue that’s going on. We’re doing great things in Glenwood around our area. This was just one more thing that needed to happen. How it happens, when it happens, and how much of it happens–we’re just going back to the drawing board, and putting those things back together.”

Though Embray believes support for the upgrades is there, he adds it may not be at the level the district’s visionary committee originally expected. He says the district’s booster club will spearhead a capital campaign for the renovations, estimated at $5.2 million “in one fell swoop.” “The funding source for that is basically a capital campaign of donations,” he said, “and possible grants that we can get to do the project. The part that the district is looking at are the things that the district would normally be looking at in terms of facility plans and maintenance plans. So our dollars, our school dollars, would probably go into the track complex, itself.”

Embray says visionary committee members are expected to set a timetable for the project, and present it to the Glenwood School Board in three weeks.

(Story courtesy Mike Peterson/KMA Shenandoah)