L’view provides community center info

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

Because Lincolnview School District residents have been great supporters of the school district, the district now wants to give something back to the community in the form of a 33,000-square-foot multipurpose community center.

Lincolnview Superintendent Jeff Snyder emceed an informational meeting Monday evening in the elementary cafeteria Monday evening to provide details of the proposed facility, as well as obtain feedback from district residents on the plan.

As background, the superintendent first noted that, through the consolidation of three eastern Van Wert County school systems, Hoaglin-Jackson, Van-Del, and York, in 1959, the Lincolnview community was formed and a community focus was created. That intensified, starting in 1997, when the current elementary school was built, bringing all Lincolnview facilities to one site on Middle Point Road.

In the nearly six decades that followed consolidation, the Lincolnview community has been very supportive of the district and its students, allowing for the building of a new elementary school and grades 7-12 facility, as well as the 1-to-1 initiative that has provided computing devices for all students.

Treasurer Troy Bowersock, whose stewardship is one reason the district’s finances look as good as they do, said the last time a school levy was defeated by Lincolnview voters was in 1976, and joked that he probably wasn’t even in school yet when that happened.

Snyder told the approximately 50 people who attended the meeting that the idea for a community center came about during a series of strategic planning sessions held at the school. While talking about one of the four focus areas — facilities and infrastructure (the others were academics, policy and procedures, and communication) — the superintendent said the idea was brought up for a multi-purpose facility that could be used by the community, as well as students and staff.

“One of the things that kept coming up was youth opportunities,” Snyder said. “We expanded the concept to the community as a whole, and this evolved into a community center idea.”

Prior to coming up with a proposal of their own, school officials toured school facilities in the communities of New Bremen, Fort Recovery, Minster, and Celina to get ideas for a Lincolnview facility. The current proposal would provide a number of indoor athletic areas — two basketball-volleyball courts, three batting cages, a fitness center, locker rooms, and an athletic training room — as well as a concession stand, restrooms, a storage area, and a community meeting room.

Snyder said the building, which would be located next to the district bus barn and adjacent to the district’s all-weather track complex, could also be used to provide space for the school robotics program, as well as academic laboratories. Indoor pickleball or tennis courts are also a possibility, if the community so desired, the superintendent noted.

Snyder said the center would also serve an important function for the track facility, providing an entrance where tickets could be sold and collected, a concession stand, and restroom facilities for those attending track and field events.

The superintendent said the building could also provide an alternate site to house students if there was a security threat at the other school facilities. The superintendent said the focus when creating a design was to provide flexibility in what uses could be considered for the building.

Bowersock said the estimated cost of the facility, not including equipment, would be between $4.8 million and $5 million, and would be paid for without raising taxes, noting that the district currently has $15.5 million in its cash reserve fund, largely because of Lincolnview’s ability to operate in the black every year for nearly two decades.

“Each year we’ve operated in the black we’ve been able to establish and maintain a reserve balance to have available for unexpected and unplanned items, to expand our technology and all our innovative programs, to establish a safety net, to even pay ahead on our bond retirement (for facilities construction),” Bowersock explained.

Brian Wolf of Minster-based architectural design firm Garman Miller & Associates later provided an overview of the one-story community center design his firm created, noting that the entire building would be heated, although he noted that the heating system would not be geothermal, but would use a conventional furnace. A portion of the building would also be air-conditioned, while the basketball-volleyball court area would include large ceiling fans to provide air flow to uncooled areas.

Bowersock said operating costs would be approximately $15,000 a year in today’s dollars.

Access to the community center would be provided through a key fob that each community member would pay a small fee for. The fobs would allow community residents to access the facility during the day, while also provide accountability if problems arose. Snyder said anyone who caused problems at the facility could have their fobs deactivated.

The superintendent stressed several times during the meeting that, while students would undoubtedly use the facility, the building would be open to all members of the Lincolnview community, noting that parents of students coming to current school facilities for an athletic practice could use the facility while their students were busy.

“The Lincolnview community has supported our schools; now we want to give back to the community,” Snyder said.

Additional meetings are planned to further discuss the proposal, while information will also be placed on the school website.