VWCS Board discusses stadium issues

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

The Van Wert City Board of Education heard more discussion on football stadium options during its November meeting on Wednesday.

Several local residents, as well as a former student who now lives in Indiana, were on hand to talk about a plan to renovate Eggerss Stadium. Larry Mengerink and Kent McMillen have spearheaded a move to keep and renovate the current stadium, at an approximate cost of $3.5 million, rather than build a new facility at the current high school-middle school site.

The school board had commissioned a study mostly to see whether a number of facilities, including a bus barn, softball and baseball fields, and possibly a new stadium and concession stand, could be located at the new school site. However, Board President RJ Coleman said the forthcoming design was more of an exercise in what was possible, rather than a “done deal”, as some local residents believed.

“We are in the infancy stages of it, really,” Coleman said, adding that no decisions — or even much information — has been developed at this point, including the fact that no cost estimates have been done on a new stadium.

“Once we have more information, I think we will be in a better position to involve the community and provide them with more information,” the board president added. “It’s just we don’t have that information right now.”

Coleman also noted that, without the funds to pursue any plan at this time — whether it be new facilities or renovating Eggerss Stadium — the board hasn’t been in much of a hurry to move forward.

“Without the funds readily available, I guess our urgency hasn’t quite been there,” the board president said.

Superintendent Ken Amstutz also provided some background on the design provided by architectural firm Beilharz and Associates, noting that, with the enlargement of a retention pond on the new school site, as well as construction of the Van Wert County Foundation Tennis Complex, school officials were unsure what other facilities might fit on the approximately 99-acre site.

While the priority for the plan has been a new bus barn, Amstutz said school officials also added ball fields and a football stadium to the design request to see if it would all fit at the site. He stressed there has been no other information developed on a new football stadium to date.

Also attending the meeting was retired high school assistant principal Don Miller, who had heard rumors in the community and came to see what, if anything, was being done on the project.

He also criticized McMillen’s statement that he had polled 500 local residents and 95 percent had been in favor of renovating Eggerss Stadium.

“How can anybody in Van Wert make a decision, one way or the other, until the information is out there that (Eggerss) stadium is going to cost this much money and the new facility is going to cost this much,” Miller said.

Board member Anthony Adams agreed.

“Once we have all the information, we’ll be able to present both options, or whatever options are available, and there will be plenty of time for discussion, plenty of time for debate,” Adams said. “There will be plenty of time to make the right decision.”

McMillen noted that his reason for polling the community and pushing for a decision on a plan to renovate Eggerss Stadium is to make something happen before the stadium, which was built in the 1930s, deteriorates to the point it can’t be repaired.

One person serious about renovating Eggerss Stadium was Dave Boroff, a 1974 VWHS graduate who painted the “Cougar Pride” sign on the wall at the end of the football field, as well as similar signs in the old high school, while a senior at Van Wert.

“Forty-two years ago I spent virtually 90 percent of my senior year painting the high school gym on both ends, both ends of the no longer existent junior high gym, and I painted that wall out there on that field,” Boroff said with emotion.

Boroff, who now lives in Goshen, Indiana, also gave the board a check for $1,000 and even offered to help with renovation work on the current stadium, most of which he said could be done by volunteers.

Coleman did stress that the board is currently working to come up with cost figures for a new football stadium and related facilities in the Beilharz design.

“Once we have more information, I think we will be in a better position to involve the community and provide them with more information,” the board president said. “It’s just we don’t have that information right now.”

Also Wednesday, the board heard a presentation from several Van Wert Elementary School staff members on six initiatives implemented at the school. Those initiatives, six of 18 currently implemented at the school, include the Social Justice program, which Principal Kevin Gehres said involves a paradigm shift from being reactive to being proactive about every staff member taking responsibility for every student at the school.

Other initiatives featured included the Wellness, Cougar Club, Cougar Pride, Literacy Committee, and Watch D.O.G.S. (Dads of Great Students) programs.

Van Wert Treasurer Mike Ruen also noted that district income tax revenues have increased 2.23 percent so far this fiscal year, although he said a current strike at the local Federal-Mogul plant could have a negative effect on future revenues if it continues for any length of time.

In other action, the board:

• Accepted the resignation of Stacia Profit.
• Approved supplemental contracts, as follows: Andrea Mead, high school girls’ basetball assistant coach; Hannah Phlipot, girls’ reserve basketball coach; Eliza Lichtensteiger, seventh grade girls’ basketball coach; Tom Baer, eighth grade girls’ basketball coach; and Devyn Rodriguez, middle school basketball cheerleading coach.
• Accepted the following donations: Cooper Family Foundation/Raymond James Charitable Endowment Fund, $2,000 for the Virgil H. Cooper Scholarship; $500 from Statewide Ford Lincoln, $500 from Advanced Biological Marketing, $2,500 from Alliance Automation LLC, $500 from Citizens National Bank, and $250 from Miller Precision Manufacturing Industries Inc., for the VWHS Robotics Club; $50 from Laudick’s Jewelry, $50 from Summer Sealers LLC, and $200 from Darin Figel, doing business as Figel Management, for the Salvation Army Senior Project; $100 from Unverferth Dentistry Inc., $50 from J. Richard Sealscott CPA Inc., $50 from Laudick’s Jewelry, $100 from Alspach-Gearhart Funeral Home & Crematory/Gearhart & Jurczyk Funeral Home, $100 from AMA Material Supply Inc., $100 from Van Wert Savings Bank, $100 from H.J. Thatcher Insurance Agency Inc., for the VWMS Renaissance Program; $500 from Lee Kinstle GM Sales & Service for the Watch D.O.G.S. program; and $2,500 from Van Wert County Hospital for the Van Wert County Hospital Cross Country Invitational.
• Approved additions and modifications to a portion of the community school sponsorship contract with LifeLinks Community School.
• Learned that Jennifer Trittschuh was advanced on the pay scale from master’s degree plus 15 hours, to master’s degree plus 30 hours.

The next meeting of the Van Wert City Board of Education will be at 5 p.m. Wednesday, December 14, in the boardroom in the S.F. Goedde Building.