Parking gains

Cars bob and weave, horns blare, and a sea of teen drivers painfully inch their way towards freedom and the open road. This is a scene unfolding on a daily basis, with many students finding themselves trapped at school long after the final bell rings. This logistics mayhem, may soon be simplified thanks to the next phase of the latest bond proposal.

In the plans for spring 2016 comes the groundbreaking of a new road construction project, which will link the current parking lot to a new parking area near the baseball fields, with the potential for a connecting road to Rosy Mound Drive.

“Right now we’re just going from next to the tailgate area, around the tennis courts, to the baseball/softball area,” Operations Director Ted Rescorla said. “And that will be the first phase of the road itself.”

This phase of road construction will cost approximately $800,000 and be linked to a brand new parking lot near the baseball diamonds, saving fans the long walk from parking in front of the football stadium.

“That will create 50 spaces for the baseball/softball fans to be able to get back there,” Rescorla said. “And then also the possibility of overflow for graduation or big football games, or soccer games.”

Phase two of the construction project, which has yet to be scheduled, is to connect the new lot to Rosy Mound Drive via a road running parallel to US-31. A project which has been complicated due to a lack of land access.

“The road commission originally, when the bond went to vote, had given a verbal agreement that we would be able to get an easement,” Principal Tracy Wilson said. “Now that’s changed.”

According to Superintendent Andrew Ingall, the 27 acre parcel was recently sold to a private owner whom the school board is in negotiations with.

This complication has shifted priority to completing the new baseball parking lot and connecting driveway.

“Later on were looking at the possibility of purchasing the property, or easement or something like that but right now we’re not in the market for property,” Rescorla said.

Depending on how far the $1.2 million construction project can be stretched, as well as the availability of land, the Rosy Mound connector is a project which may be pursued later on.

“This is just another phase of trying to make the use and accessibility as good as we can for everybody that comes and goes from (the high school),” Ingall said.