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Adrian to vote on new gym

By Jolene Farley

Taxpayers in the Adrian School District will vote once again Tuesday, Dec. 19, on a bond referendum concerning construction of a gymnasium and parking changes at the high school.

After heavy debate, the Adrian School Board members voted 6-1 at their regular meeting to allow voters to decide if a new gym is needed by the Adrian School District.

The Adrian voters passed a $4.9-million bond referendum last December for improvements to the district's elementary school facilities, but they voted no on a $2-million bond referendum for the high school gym and parking changes.

The $4.9-million bond issue passed easily with a vote of 637 to 374. The second question on the ballot concerning construction of the new gym was narrowly defeated by a vote of 502 to 466.

After December's vote, area citizens immediately began the effort to bring the gym referendum to the ballot once again.

A petition was circulated around Adrian and was presented to the Adrian School Board with more than 400 signatures. The board agreed to hire the DLR Group, Minneapolis, the same architectural firm that designed the elementary school addition, to consult with the citizens' group to work on gym design.

The citizens' group and architects new plan includes more seating area, extra storage, a wrestling room and a fitness room that could possibly be used as a community fitness center.

"This is a no-frills plan. If we just put up a gym it would not solve many of our problems," said Coach Randy Strand, "and costs just keep going up."

The price tag on the new design is $2.8 million.

"The biggest negative is the dollar figure," said Darwin Veld, chairman of the Adrian School Board.

The school board planned to keep the referendum at the $2.2 million figure. The higher figure is due to increased construction costs and design changes. Construction costs have increased 10 percent over last year, according to Amcon CM, construction manager for Adrian's elementary project.

"We as a group went above the $2.2-million figure," said Strand, also a member of the community group studying the gym bond issue.

"The general feeling of the group was that the members of the community that were opposed would be opposed whether the bond issue was $2.2 million or $2.8 million," he said. "Construction costs keep going up, but the need does not go away."

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