School district thinking of future gym and field

Lake Roosevelt Schools could get new sports facilities built if they are "shovel ready" when and if grant money becomes available. 

Grand Coulee Dam School District Superintendent Paul Turner spoke to The Star on Monday about plans to issue a Request for Qualifications soon for an architect to work with on facilities projects.

Turner said the school board needs to look at the "bigger picture" of the district's facilities and decide what their vision is.

"When we built [the new school] we had designs for a new field and gym and so on," Turner said. The board needs to relook at those designs and have some "deeper discussions" about their facilities and what they want to do, with one question being, what should they do with the former middle school in Grand Coulee?

"Are we going to let it fall apart and rot?" Turner asked.

Turner said that "you hear stuff" about upcoming grants from the federal and state governments, adding that funds often go toward projects that are "shovel ready." 

"We want to get to where we are shovel ready so we can say we're ready to roll [when funds become available]," Turner said about the planning process.

"When looking at funding, the state is only going to give you so much," Turner continued. "You can't build the Taj Mahal. We can have our dreams, and then we have reality. We'd all love to have a great everything."

A new gym, and a track around a new football field are just some ideas that could be planned for until funding came around to make those plans a reality.