WAITSBURG – School Board Chair Ross Hamann urged fellow board members to keep discussions on the recently failed capital projects bond a priority at last week's board meeting. Topping his concerns is the potential loss of funds donated to help replace the district field house – one of the items included in the failed bond levy.

In a prior interview with The Times, Hamann explained that, in 2011, an anonymous donor gave $40,000, administered through the Blue Mountain Community Foundation, to the community toward the construction of a new field house at the athletic field.

The gift came with two stipulations. First, the field house is to be named after Ken Zuger, who was once a top Waitsburg football player and schoolmate of the benefactor. The second stipulation set a completion date on the project of 2015. If the project was not completed by the end of 2015, funding was to revert to the estate.

The current field house is the old Whiskey Creek School Building that was moved to the athletic field and repurposed in 1931. Hamann said there "isn't one adequate aspect" of the building that consists of two bathrooms, in very poor condition, and a storage area.

At last week's board meeting Hamann said the benefactor had agreed to contact BMCF and ask them to let the district make one more attempt to raise replacement funds.

"We have funds available. We need to pursue the projects that were identified, find out what the community didn't support, stay on top of it, and put together a better plan," Hamann said, referring to the failed capital improvements bond.

Hamann said he'd had discussions with community members who felt things like air conditioning and an all-weather track were "want items" rather than "need items."

High school teacher Jim Leid said he thought many community members were opposed to the expense of building and maintaining an all-weather track. "I don't even think you have the staff on-board with that," he said.

Times File Photo

The old Whiskey Creek School building was moved and repurposed as a field house in 1931. The building houses the only bathroom facilities at the sports complex, aside from porta potties. A benefactor has donated $40,000 toward it's replacement, but the stipulated deadline has already been missed.

Hamann said the track was completely unusable last week, when the north end became a mud puddle for four days following a rain right at the start of track season.

Board members discussed the options of running the bond a second time versus seeking shorter-term levies to fund specific projects. They agreed to pursue discussions with the community and to create another survey to help determine where the bond fell short.

"We do have community support. We were only 13 votes shy of passing with a supermajority," said Superintendent Carol Clarke.

"Kids these days have choices. Parents, teachers, and coaches have choices. We have to have decent facilities if we want to attract them here," Hamann said.