CHIPPEWA FALLS — Construction on a new athletic center on the Chippewa Falls High School campus could begin next spring, as the organization planning it has started taking bids on the multi-million dollar project.
The Chippewa Falls Senior High School Athletic Booster Club is planning to construct the Cardinal United Fitness Center between the high school and Hillcrest Elementary. The club came up with a plan for it to be constructed as a ‘safe room,’ which would consist of an approximately 22,000-square-foot concrete community tornado safe room.
Club president Trevor Bohland spoke to the Chippewa Falls School Board last week about the fitness center, saying they’ve been working on plans for about a year. He said they have one committee focused on design and another focused on fundraising. ATS&R designed the facility. The building would be owned by the Booster Club, not the school district, and the club is committed to taking on the costs of operational expenses.
”We’re trying to build something for the community that’s really needed,” Bohland told the board. “When you look at the other opportunities offered to other schools in the Big Rivers, we have to step up our game.”
Bohland said they are on pace to break ground next year. Specific cost estimates have not been released.
“We just wrapped up our architectural (designs), and we’re in the process of getting bids. There are nine companies we’ve reached out to,” Bohland said. “We have a lot of heavy lifting to do. We are tentatively looking at a spring 2025 date, so that gives us 12 months. We need to make sure we have enough money to fund this thing.”
School board member Steve Olson spoke highly of the project.
“This is one of the pieces that attracts people to our town,” Olson said. {div class=”adL”}When the project was announced last summer, Chippewa Falls Schools athletic director Mike Thompson said that nearly every school in the Big Rivers Conference has expanded its sports training facilities.
However, Chippewa Falls has not kept pace. For instance, Chippewa Falls has eight stations in its weight room, but Eau Claire North and Memorial each have more than 24, Thompson said. Chippewa Falls also doesn’t have dedicated training rooms for gymnastics and wrestling; students in those sports leave campus and go to facilities elsewhere.
In January, the Booster Club asked the Chippewa County Board to apply for and administer a grant that could have paid for up to 75% of the project. The club was seeking a Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) grant to make the fitness center a “safe room” constructed for use during a tornado. However, the county board rejected the idea and postponed a resolution to assist on a 13-7 vote.
Most Popular
Comments / 0