First Posted: 4/15/2013 6:13:00 PM
Lake-Lehman School District officials are grateful for a $500,000 gaming grant, but they wanted more than $800,000 for the projects they envisioned.
The funds received won’t even cover the new turf for the football field and resurfacing of the running track. Those projects have already been bid out at $468,000 and $65,000, respectively.
McGovern is counting on the gigantic fundraiser, the Knight of Mayhem, on June 1 to provide more funds for proposed projects. He said that more than 600 deeds for Cowpie Bingo have been sold.
The district envisions other projects from the grant proposal which will be provided by fundraising, including exercise equipment for a nature trail, an ice rink and a sand volleyball court and pavilion.
McGovern, school board members and administrators are also using sweat equity to make the nature trail happens without using any funds at all. They are all so committed to providing facilities for the community that they have been spending their weekends using bushhogs and bulldozers to clean up and clear the trail for community use.
McGovern said, “We based the grant on a community project.” He explained that the district doesn’t have to follow through on all the projects because it didn’t get the full grant.
But this is unacceptable to McGovern.
“I would feel extremely shallow to just get a field and a track,” he said, pointing out that those facilities aren’t open to the public. He eels a need to provide public facilities on the school district property. “This is the center of Lake-Lehman. People here allow us to operate through their taxes.”
McGovern took The Dallas Post on a Jeep tour of the new walking trail which will cover two and a half miles.
He explained that the district owns 85 acres. Most of them are one large plot which includes Lehman-Jackson Elementary and the Lake-Lehman Junior/Senior High School.
One end of the trail will start behind Lehman-Jackson Elementary while the proposed trail branches out over the entire property.
Parking will be provided for trail users on Market Street by the district’s old house and on Mountain View Drive.
McGovern says that maple, black walnut, apple and cherry trees are found in the wooded area crossed by the trails. He pointed out a grassy field which will have a stone path leading through it and that 15 deer had been spotted there recently.
Also on the trail is a playing field behind the football field. “This field will be redone, bulldozed, laser graded and hydroseeded,” he said. By moving the tree line, the field can become a regulation soccer field.
The trail will also wind around the football field and water treatment plant.
Of the trail, McGovern said, “We’ve been preparing for a while. We want to make a cross-country course.”
He underlined the massive amount of work that has been done, pointing out an area behind the football field where district construction waste had been dumped for years. “That was just cleaned out in the past two weekends.”
The community is encouraged to volunteer. “There’s a lot of work to do,” McGovern said.
The district is aiming for a June 1 opening of the nature trail to coincide with the Knight of Mayhem fundraiser. If June 1 isn’t possible, the trails are scheduled to open on July 4.
“I’m very proud of the effort everyone has put into this,” the superintendent said.