GUNNISON—Out with old and in and with the new is what South Sanpete School Board talked about at a meeting on Wednesday, April 13, with large projects coming up at both Gunnison Valley and Manti High schools.
The school board learned that upgrades to both high school gyms have already begun. Andy Cox, district maintenance director, has been working for the last several months to remove all the old lightening and install new LED lights.
“Once school is out, the gym floors will be sanded clear down to the wood,” Superintendent Ralph Squire said. “The gym floors are both 15 to 20 years old and wood darkens with age.”
Once the floors are sanded, new designs will be added to mark the sidelines, keyholes, free throw lines and show school symbols. The designs were selected by a committee at each school from various mockups created by Mike Barton at I-Four Media in Ephraim.
“We wanted to keep the floors simple and classic,” Squire said. “The cost of the designs and painting the floors will be around $24,000 apiece.”
Jake Hill, the district business administrator, said other upgrades that have happened or will happen include repairing the bleachers so that they don’t scrape the new flooring and new scoreboards. The scoreboards will be equipped with shot clocks, which are now required by Utah High School Athletic Association.
“What is really awesome (regarding score clocks) is that they were funded 100% by community donors,” Hill said.
The other big project in the works is the repair of both high school parking lots. Hill said five contractors visited both high schools to assess the projects.
“We are hoping for five bids,” Hill said. “We also know that we will probably get less, as some won’t submit one.”
Bids are due on Tuesday, April 19, and the district plans to start working on the projects the day after graduation.
“With inflation of everything, how much we actually get done will be based off those bids,” Squire said.
The plan as of now is to take out the island in the main parking lot at Manti High, which will add roughly 50 new parking spots.
“Once (contractors) start, we will plan on doing it in sections so that there will be access to the school,” Hill said.
Gunnison High School is more straight forward. There won’t be anything to rip out. “We are hoping to add asphalt to the gravel area to control the weeds and give more of a controlled parking area,” Hill said.
The gym floor and parking lot projects are expected to take most of the summer.
