MOUNT VERNON – Mount Vernon City Schools superintendent Bill Seder revealed the specifics of a design proposal for the district’s new athletics fieldhouse and bus garage during Monday night’s Board of Education meeting.
Seder has been working with local criterion architect Jeff Salva, of Green Valley Design, to design each facility before contracting with a bigger firm to move forward with the project.
Seder said the proposed design will be sent out soon to two architectural firms who have expressed interest in working with the district on the project: Adena Corporation, of Mansfield, and Mull & Weithman Architects, Inc., of Columbus.
Once the firms receive the final proposals, they will have two weeks to give the school district their maximum price estimate, which will include estimates for two-court and three-court fieldhouses. The district will then review each bid and make a decision from there.
Whichever firm is chosen will work on both projects – the fieldhouse and the bus garage – which will both be located on Yellow Jacket Drive, across from the high school.
Seder said the district is behind in the building process, as it was hoping to be close to breaking ground by now. He also noted the district set a rather ambitious initial timeline.
“We really thought by now that we’d have already secured our contractor and (would have) been working through the details,” Seder said. “We hoped to break ground before school started. Obviously now that’s not going to be the case.
“We always want it to move quicker than it really does. And people will always tell you, ‘It’s an ambitious timeline. Be patient; if it doesn’t work out, don’t get too bent out of shape.’ At this point, I see it as being something probably not for this year but for the years to come.”
Seder presented his latest proposal to the board on Monday, which includes the fieldhouse and bus garage being separated by a two-lane road. This road would be used solely by bus drivers and transportation workers, who will have a parking lot by the facility.
Seder originally thought of joining the fieldhouse and bus garage, but reconsidered when he discovered the building’s size would cause fire hazard concerns. In his previous proposal, the bus garage access road was back by the property line.
“Everybody that we’ve talked to really feels positive about this change, and it keeps the two plans separate,” Seder said. “So I think that’s a positive thing.”
Seder also decreased the bus garage by 200 square feet in his new proposal in an effort to make better use of space and cut down on district costs.
He said he went to the mayor’s office on Monday to continue discussions of extending Yellow Jacket Drive to Cougar Drive, which Seder believes “can really benefit the community.”
Bus garage
In Seder’s proposal for the garage, which will be approximately 13,000 square-foot facility, there will be four bays available for buses; previously, there were only two. The garage will also include a mezzanine level for storage.
“Because it’s a 14-foot height, we took advantage of that, and all over this office area we’ll have the ability to go upstairs and have tires,” Seder said. “Anything that we can store, we can store above and overhead, and we have a lift that will get it up into that storage mezzanine area.”
The garage will include offices, a break room and a sizable maintenance area at the back of the facility, which Seder said was lacking in the old garage.
The parking lot behind the garage will include 32 bus parking spaces and 41 regular spaces. There will be parking spaces at the front of the building – which will face the fieldhouse – for employees.
Seder proposed the building have a split-faced, block veneer, which would give the garage a “textured look.”
Seder and councilman Steven Thompson both said during Monday’s meeting that community members had called in, expressing concerns about the aesthetics of the new garage.
“Aesthetics are important to us here. I mean, when you drive down Yellow Jacket Drive, the last thing we want to see is an eyesore to our left,” Seder responded. “So these are designed in a very similar way. This fence needs to be high enough so that it goes above our buses and we’re talking about a fence that has the colored slats where you can kind of hide the buses, per se.”
The district’s old bus garage, located on Harcourt Road, cannot fully fit each bus inside the garage and has a deteriorating exterior.
“It’s just not a very attractive building,” Seder said.
Seder said the district will likely sell the 1.9-acre property once the new garage is built.
Fieldhouse
The fieldhouse would be 50,350 square feet according to Seder’s new proposal, located adjacent to the football stadium’s parking lot.
The facility would feature two to three basketball courts, depending on pricing estimates, as well as a wrestling room, weight room, locker rooms and offices. Seder said the current proposal is for a three-court facility. However, if the district went with two courts, the facility would shrink and the road between the fieldhouse and garage would widen.
Building an athletics fieldhouse has been an idea within the district for the last 20 years or so, Mount Vernon High School athletic director Justin Sanford said last month.
This facility would allow high school and middle school athletic programs to have substantially more access to facilities during the offseason. It would also provide a venue for the community’s youth programs to use for development.
The school’s wrestling program would greatly benefit from the new fieldhouse, as wrestlers have previously had to practice at Pleasant Street Elementary. With their own room on the high school campus, wrestlers would be able to work out at a convenient location all year long.
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The board hopes the fieldhouse will cost between $2.5 and $3 million, while the bus garage would cost between $1 and $1.2 million.
The fieldhouse will be funded largely through athletics booster club donations, with the help of state casino fund funds and pay-to-play revenue.
The district’s athletics booster club has already raised nearly $1.5 million for the fieldhouse, Seder said, and he expects support to rise once plans are finalized.
“There is a belief that once we really kick it off and we finally have the schematics and everything to share with the public in a more presentation kind of manner, that they’ll raise even more money, and hopefully enough to where the board’s participation can be limited,” Seder said.
While the athletics booster club has spearheaded the fieldhouse funding, the board considers funding the new bus garage its responsibility. It will likely use casino funds and permanent improvement funds to pay for the facility.
Seder said he has received mixed feedback from district residents concerning the new projects, especially the fieldhouse.
“I think you’re always going to have a little bit of a mixed bag because folks will feel like this is very targeted towards a specific group of students – in this case, athletes,” Seder said. “You know, a bulk of the money being raised by this is by an athletic booster club in fundraising pieces. And it will touch so many more people than just the athletes.”
Seder noted the school band could use the fieldhouse for practice space during inclement weather. He also hopes to allow senior citizens to use the fieldhouse as a walking space during the winter.
Seder emphasized the fieldhouse will likely not be funded by taxpayer money.
“There’s this perception that it’s taxpayer money paying for this when I’ve got a building out here that the steps are crumbling,” he said. “They want to try to make that comparison – and rightfully so, we should be taking care of those other things – it’s just the way it’s funded is a little bit different.”
No members of the public attended Monday’s board meeting. The next meeting is scheduled for Aug. 20 at 6 p.m. at the Board of Education Office.
Other business
The school board approved the promotion of Megan Aubihl from assistant band director to high school band director on Monday, following the resignation of former band director Andrew Sundman on July 9.
“The dagger through my heart was the resignation last week of Andy Sundman, and you know, he’s been an outstanding band director in my time, even before my time,” Seder said. “His desire to stay home with family is certainly applaudable, but it will be a loss for us, there’s no question.”
A former assistant under Sundman, Aubihl comes “highly regarded and highly recommended by Andy,” Seder said.
The school district is now looking for a new middle school band director, as Aubihl served that position as well while being an assistant for the high school.
According to the district’s employment website, the district is still looking to fill multiple positions before the start of the school year; a JV girls volleyball coach, a bus driver, a custodian, a middle school intervention specialist, a substitute secretary, a substitute cook, a substitute teacher and a substitute aid.
