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New life was pumped into Ely’s aging athletic facilities earlier this year.
It came in the form of a $5 million allocation to the Ely School District for the purpose of improving the school’s athletic complex.
In addition, another $250,000 was set aside specifically for Veterans Memorial Field, where 11 American Legion baseball teams are playing this weekend in a major tournament and where the Division II State American Legion Tournament will be held in 2025.
The financial windfall came via legislative action, and wouldn’t have happened without the support of State Sen. Grant Hauschild (D), State Rep. Roger Skraba (R) and State Rep. Dave Lislegard (D). As we’ve written on this page previously, it’s heartening to see bipartisan support and political divides put aside when it comes to supporting local initiatives and projects.
Now the Ely School District has both the enviable, yet difficult, task at hand of deciding how to make best use of the funds.
This week, school board members took a solid first step, engaging engineer Jason Chopp of SEH to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the athletic facilities, and to come up with options, cost estimates and recommendations.
Chopp told the school board that he’ll enlist the aid of other engineers and architects to come up with schematic designs and some possibilities for the district to consider.
It will be a road map of sorts and one that is needed.
There’s no doubt the district has an assortment of facilities to consider when improving its athletic complex, both outdoor and indoor.
The $250,000 set aside for the baseball field will provide a shot in the arm as the community prepares to host tournaments that bring hundreds of people to town, several times a year.
But the outdoor needs go beyond the ballpark and include the softball field and a century-old football stadium that has served its purpose, and only this year has had a makeshift track installed so our kids can practice there rather than on Ely’s streets and avenues.
Inside, the fabled Memorial Gymnasium has many needs and issues including better acoustics, plaster showing in the old gym, and a ceiling that has just a temporary fix after part of it collapsed a few years back.
Across the campus, the ice arena is now better than 50 years old and also showing its age.
Getting a grasp on all of the needs and wants and coming up with a plan that gets the best bang for the buck, and perhaps leveraging the $5 million with other funding sources, will be vital.
But the project has been placed in good hands. Chopp and his team not only are professionals, but they have vast experience working with Ely initatives. Chopp also is invested locally, as a father of two school-aged children. The local ties should only serve to help the district as it tries to make the most of what clearly is a generous windfall.
We’re not sure what the final project will look like or what it will cost, but it’s clear that the Ely district indeed has a golden opportunity.
The $5 million allocation, perhaps paired with other funds, provides the district with a one-time opportunity to revamp its athletic facilities and put them on par with neighboring schools that have also made significant investments.
We’re looking forward to seeing the results.
