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School gymnasium may get a new life
By BARBARA BEHRENDT, Times Staff Writer INVERNESS -- The former Citrus High School gymnasium is not out of the game yet. The School Board late Tuesday agreed to study transforming the old brick structure back into the gymnasium it once was. The board also approved spending up to $6,000 to obtain a formal estimate on the cost. The lack of such an estimate is largely what caused the board to reject the renovation idea last month. Up to this point, board members have been frustrated that they did not have adequate information from staff to decide what to do with the building. The board also heard a strong pitch from several community members who are pushing for the board to renovate the building, make it into a gymnasium again, and provide another place for youth and community activities. In the process, these advocates said, the board would preserve an historic building. The nearly 50-year-old building now is home to classrooms and storage for the agriculture program. The district is in the planning stages of replacing those classrooms with new ones. The board's vote Tuesday will not delay that planning process for now. Rather, it will allow the process to go on while the project architect explores the costs of the alternative plan. School Board member Sandra "Sam" Himmel has been spearheading that alternative plan, which calls for construction of new classrooms at another site on campus and clearing the way for the gym restoration. Himmel said that estimates show building the new classrooms would cost just more than $1-million, whereas renovating the gym into classrooms would cost about $200,000 less than that. Himmel pitched the new classroom wing idea to the board last month but could not get the support she needed from other board members. Himmel said the extra spending would be worthwhile. But the cost of the actual gymnasium renovation has been an unknown piece of the puzzle. Some district estimates place the cost as high as $1.5-million. Community member Ed Lattin told the board Tuesday that to gather the community support needed to help renovate the former gym he needed more accurate figures. "You have a unique opportunity, I think, to save a historic building," said Lattin, who has been advocating the project. Board member Carol Snyder, who had previously opposed Himmel's gymnasium idea, said that crowd was clearly interested in the schools sharing what they had with the community and she said she would support the idea to "drag our feet just a bit" to explore the Citrus High gym renovation. Patience Nave, another board member who did not previously support the renovation idea, said she too was changing her direction because she was now hopeful that other entities than just the School Board might foot part of the bill for the renovation. "I want real figures," she said. "Then we can decide." Superintendent David Hickey, who has been critical of the board's actions on the issue because the gym renovation has not been discussed by or recommended by the district's formal long-range planning committee, said he wasn't sure he could get the board an estimate of the costs in the next 30 days. "We'll do our best," he said. -- Barbara Behrendt can be reached at behrendt@sptimes.com or 564-3621.
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