Costs run up for school track

Another $100,000 needed for equipment and shed

Add another $100,000 to outfit the track.Cost of an all-weather track at the new high school is pegged at $250,000, and at 17th, it is far down the priority list of the design team, which found out last week it will cost another $100,000 to cover equipment, including the basics, like hurdles."You need a storage shed, you need hurdles, mats, pits and all sorts of stuff," Rick Copley, a member of the Milers who is also an assistant track coach at Kennett, said at last week's Conway Building Steering Committee meeting at the John Fuller School in North Conway. "This $250,000 is a little misleading it's more like $350,000."SAU 9 Superintendent Carl Nelson explained the $250,000 for the track covered such things as a drainage system and stripping the lanes on it. The design team also last month created a new priority, No. 8 on the list, placing $20,000 for the grubbing and excavating the land where a track might eventually go. "You're right, you may not have a mat to jump into," Nelson said. "It's the same thing with the gym we have backboards (in the budget) but we didn't put in basketballs (in the budget). There were some pieces of equipment that were not included and could be added once the bids come back."The district should have all bids back for steel, masonry, concrete and site work back by the end of this month. There have already been three bids for the site work. Electrical and mechanical bids went out last week and are due back in mid May."We'll know a lot more when we get those bids," Nelson said.Committee member Donna Dolan recalled education planner Terry Neylon, of Lee Kennedy Inc., the project managers for the Conway School District, creating a book outlining what every department at the school would like. "I remember we were talking about having storage sheds and I was serious about the need for pole vaulting mats," she said. "If we need more information from Steve (Mello, athletic director at Kennett High) then I think we need to ask."Last spring, the alternative funding committee (Sheryl Kovalik, Rebecca Moore, Pat Swett, Lisa Eastwood, Jane Gray and Marti Risch) asked department heads in May to submit a "wish list" for the them to consider seeking alternative funding help for. Mello was the lone department head to submit a lit at this time, submitting his May 27.Mello's requests totaled in the range of $150,000, concentrating primarily on three areas: the new track (the first all weather track for the school), health and fitness equipment, and equipment for the athletic trainers.Under the new track requests, Mello offered a "first to finish" list of items for the program. They are as follows: a storage shed for all equipment, a pole vault system, a high jump system, a long jump runway and pit, a triple jump runway and pit, a shot put circle, a discus circle with a net, a javelin run up area, hurdles (88 for eight lanes or 66 for six lanes), starting blocks (15 for six lanes or 18 for eight); a timing system, throwing implements shot puts, javelins and discus, pole vault poles, a multi-purpose cart, a pit repair kit; platforms for landing systems (for high jump and pole vault pits); a high jump crossbar; a pole vault crossbar, a pole putterupper, a hurdle cart, a utility wagon, a starting block cart, a competition discus cage, a replacement net, a shot put cage, a discus circle, a shot circle, a fiberglass shot toe board, a javelin toe board, a takeoff board system, a tape stake kit, a portable public address system, starter's sleeves, official's flags, shot/discus markers, magic measuring stick and a measuring wheel, and instant runway (to be used over the track), long and triple jump in ground systems, a starter's heaving protector, long and triple jump rakes, long and triple jump markers, a timers/judge's stand, measuring tapes, distance markers, and a water remover kit.Mello also outlined the need to set up a new Project Challenge ropes course, and he's been given a quote of $52,633.80 for a complete package including installation.There is also a request for the athletic training room: Clinton Value Plus Cabinets (four two-door wall cabinet, one two-door base cabinet, and three two-door/one drawer base cabinets); a Clinton Classic Line Treatment Table with a laminate shelf and storage compartment, a Clinton Taping Table with two level storage compartment and a full-length shelf, a Whitehall Full Body Whirlpool, a Profex Whirlpool Combination Table Top/Bench Set, a Whitehall Thermalator featuring a stationary thermal pack heating unit with four standard packs, a Privacy Screen, a footstool, an Iron Duck Ultra-Loc Backboard; Backboard Straps, a Big Blue Head Immobilizer, a LIFEPACK 500 Automated External Defibrillator System, and an AED/oxygen trauma backpack.There is a $5,314 request for equipment for the new football field: a pro chain set with dial and down markers, sideline markers, weighted pylons, pro goal steel, goal post pads, a sideline cart, diamond vests, and a a ground ribbon.Mello also submitted a $47,490 request for equipment for the workout/fitness room, two treadmills, two total body elliptical, a recumbent bike, two body solid adjacent decline to 90 degree benches, a power cage, an Olympic weight tree/bar rack, a flat bench; an upright bench, a Smith press, a seated calf- leg press, two Olympic bench presses, a Scott curl, a modular leg extension/seated leg curl, a modular adjusted cable crossover, a modular low row, a modular triceps pushdown, two 300-pound Olympic seats, and 100 black rubber mats with speckles for a 40 foot by 600 foot weight room and classroom.The committee decided to wait until the fall to review the list giving other department heads the opportunity to still submit lists. There were no others submitted last fall."We needed to know what we needed to have in a revised list," Kovalik said last week. "We asked Steve what pieces of equipment needed to be duplicated for the junior high and high school and what equipment would go from the old to the new high school.""We have nothing," Copley said. "I know for a fact that Bernie Livingston (head track coach at Kennett) has been adamant about a storage shed. We don't have mats, pits or hurdles or anything like that. We'd basically be starting from scratch.""I'm not a big fan of moving the carrot further away," Kovalik said.