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Schools

School Board Approves Locker Room Construction at Bielenberg

Board hopes to have project "shovel ready" by fall at Woodbury sports complex.

Hockey boosters in Woodbury want new locker rooms at the ; so does the City Council.

At last week's school board meeting, District 833 gave its approval to move forward with the project.

The board didn’t take a formal action regarding the construction of the lockers, but did hear a presentation about construction plans from Assistant Superintendent for Operations Mike Vogel. The board then gave a consensus of general approval for the project.

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Vogel said in March—when the board approved its capital improvement budget for the next two years—$275,000 was slated for construction of locker rooms to house the boys and girls hockey teams and the girls hockey team.

“At the time the board approved (the budget) we knew the city was considering other improvements to the Bielenberg Sports Complex,” Vogel said. “When we visited with them it was their intent to hold off on the construction of the locker rooms until such time as they could incorporate that into their overall planning process for the other improvements at Bielenberg.

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"Our hockey boosters were obviously anxious to have these locker rooms now and not have to wait until 2013 or 2014, so they commissioned an architect to design for the locker rooms that would not interfere or impede the future expansion plans for the city of Woodbury at Bielenberg.”

The project is estimated to cost $340,000, with booster clubs kicking in $45,000 and the school district contributing $275,000, leaving the remaining balance to the city.

If the project becomes more costly, the Woodbury City Council .

Board member Marsha Adou stressed during the board meeting that the money from the booster clubs has already been secured.

“The booster money is already basically in-hand—it doesn’t have to be raised,” she said.

Once the project is under way—hopefully sometime early this fall, Vogel said—it will be under the management of Bob Klatt, the city’s parks and recreation director.

The district will be looking for a contractor to take on the project soon, with the idea that the finished locker rooms could be used for at least part of the 2011 season.

“Our hope is we can issue contracts within the next few days so we can have shovels in the ground very, very shortly,” Vogel said. 

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