VWCS panel seeks stadium information

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

During its meeting on Wednesday, the Van Wert City Board of Education also heard an update on efforts to come up with a recommendation on whether to renovate Eggerss Stadium and provide additional athletic facilities at the current site, or possibly build a new athletic complex that would include a football stadium, track, and baseball and softball diamonds, as well as concessions and locker room facilities, at the current high school-middle school site.

Assistant to the Superintendent Bill Clifton said members of the Van Wert Athletic Complex/Stadium Committee are still collecting data needed to make a recommendation on which project they feel the district should undertake.

Clifton said the committee, which includes voting members Beth Gamble, Pat Jackson, Jacob Jones, Larry Mengerink, Don Miller, Lee Ann Pratt and Chuck Steele, and non-voting members Clifton and VWHS Principal Bob Priest, who act as information resources for the committee, has met twice since the last board meeting.

One of those meetings was with Kraig Beilharz of architectural design firm Beilharz & Associates, who provided site plans and an estimated cost analysis of both of the proposed plans.

More work will be done, Clifton said, on firming up the information already received.

“We want to do a really good job of going through those estimates with a fine-tooth comb,” Clifton said, adding that committee is trying to compare “apples to apples”, when it comes to project details.

He noted that, after all the details of both projects are fully researched, the committee would like to get community input on the projects.

In addition, Clifton said that, in addition to the two original proposals, the committee is also looking at a new one: the possibility of tearing down Eggerss Stadium and building a new facility on the current site.

Clifton said the committee needed to answer a question it had not thought of before: “Is it the stadium that the community believes in supporting, or is it the location that this community is wanting to support?”

He also hoped the community would be patient as the process unfolds.

“It’s a challenging process, because we’re dealing with a lot of emotion,” Clifton said. “People want answers right now; we’re not there yet, but they’re coming.”

The committee’s next meeting will be Tuesday, March 28.