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Both Grand Island Senior High and Northwest High School are hoping to build new field houses to serve their schools and the community.
Last Thursday night, the Grand Island school board committed $400,000 to the project, with the understanding that if private funds could not be raised to complete a field house, the money will be used for restrooms and a concession stand.
Board members felt that providing restrooms and a concession stand is a more typical school district responsibility than an entire field house.
One reason the school board has a "Plan B" is the potential cost of the project, which Activities Director Joe Kutlas pegged at $3.8 million.
In addition to making a financial commitment, the board established guidelines for naming rights.
Kutlas said the idea for a new field house has been talked about for at least a couple of years, which is about the length of time since the Old College Gym was demolished because of structural deficiencies that simply could not be repaired.
Northwest High School is in a similar situation. The idea of a field house has been talked about for years, but it is only within the past year that the discussion has heated up.
At last Monday night's board meeting, the Northwest school board approved an east entrance to the football stadium and track.
Northwest business manager Sharon Placke said Superintendent Bill Mowinkel will meet with architects this Monday to discuss design plans now that the location for the entrance has been provided.
Without those plans, there is no artist's conception of what the Northwest field house might look like. There also is no firm cost estimate. However, Placke said it likely would be a multimillion-dollar project.
She noted that most of the money would be raised privately, although the school district would pick up some of the costs. Placke mentioned architect's fees as one example, with the district likely to pick up other costs for items that usually would be the school district's responsibility anyway, even without the construction of a field house.
Placke said the Northwest board has talked about doing the projects in phases to make it affordable, rather than trying to do everything at once.
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