Buck buys new facility for Boys, Girls Club

The Conway School District's Board of Education voted 6-0 Tuesday to lease the property near Bob Courtway Middle School to the club. The agreement is a 50-year lease for $1.

"We're bursting at the seam," Phil Bartos, president of the Boys and Girls Club board, told board members. "We don't even go out and ask for membership - they come to us."

The new facility would be triple the size of the existing one on Deer Street in downtown Conway, offering 31,000 square feet for youth. The old facility will be sold, Bartos said.

The building will be constructed at Siebenmorgen and Bob Courtway Drive, land that isn't suitable for the school to use, Dr. Terry Fiddler, president of the school board, said.

"It makes a whole lot of people happy," Fiddler added.

Bartos said the property is in a "perfect position," by the middle school and close to the proposed shopping center.

Jerry Whitmore, principal of Bob Courtway Middle School, told board members, "I support them 100 percent. It's a good opportunity to provide services to students and the community."

He said the Boys and Girls Club has helped the school district in the past, providing space for alternative classrooms.

Bill Lampe, director of the Boys and Girls Club, said Whitmore "hit it on the nose." Many of those students already attend the club. "I think it's a positive for both parties," Lampe said.

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Superintendent James Simmons said, "I think it's a win-win situation for us. We could use it during the day, if we needed to have a large group in there" from the nearby Theodore Jones Elementary School or the middle school.

Bartos said the Boys and Girls Club is working with a foundation to get funding for the building project. "Whether or not that comes through, we have a contingency plan," he said.

The groundbreaking is scheduled sometime in the 2003-2004 academic year, probably in the fall, Bartos added.

Gary Greene had expressed reservations about leasing the land in an earlier meeting.

"I went out there and took another look at the land. I did have some reservations early on, not against the Boys and Girls Club, it's a fine organization. As a school district, we have to be careful when we donate land. I'm a pretty conservative person, and I don't believe in jumping out there and doing something" without researching it, he said. "I think it will be beneficial for both the school district and the Boys and Girls Club," Greene said.

In other business, the board:

Approved a modified salary schedule with 4 percent raises for certified and classified personnel. Simmons said the district will be in "good shape" financially, "even after the 4 percent raises."

Discussed the latest development on the Bob Freyaldenhoven property, which is adjacent to Bob Courtway Middle School. A request was made to the Conway Planning Commission to rezone it from A-1 (Agricultural) to C-3 (highway service district), but that was withdrawn. School officials met with a subcommittee of the Planning Commission and negotiated to have 60 percent of the property zoned C-2 (neighborhood commercial) and 40 percent zoned C-3. The district was concerned about what kind of business would go in next to the middle school if it were zoned C-3. Carroll Bishop, assistant superintendent for support services, said "you eliminate gas pumps and drive-throughs" with a C-2 designation.

Whitmore said the Freyaldenhovens "have been good neighbors," and he has no objection to the plan. Also, Whitmore said property south of the school is zoned C-3 and school officials knew that when they built Bob Courtway.

"I think it's a good compromise ... We're not going to be able to hold that land hostage out there. We better compromise and go on," Greene said.

Accepted the low bids on several campus projects, including $176,750 from Pacheco Outdoor Southern Bleachers to add 1,000 seats to John McConnell Stadium; $19,375 from Tru-Star Properties to add fencing and three block columns at the stadium; $3,600 from Ken-Mark to demolish a house on Prince Street on the Bell property; and $2,600 from Ken-Mark to demolish a smaller home on Western Avenue; $12,400 from Paladino Painting Co. to refurbish a storage area under the bleachers; and $7,100 from Statewide Track for a triple-jump runway.

Named Ray Simon of Conway, director of the state Department of Education and former superintendent for the district, as the recipient of the Distinguished Service Award in Education. The Boys and Girls Club of Faulkner County will receive the Distinguished School Board Service Award. Both these honors will be presented at graduation exercises at 7 p.m. on Friday, May 16, in the Farris Center at the University of Central Arkansas.

Announced Conway Adult Education Center will hold its commencement exercises at 7 p.m. Saturday, May 17, in the Conway Public Schools Auditorium.

Directed the property committee to look for four to five tracts of land on East German Lane to build a second intermediate school in the future.

Board Member Tyrone Scott was absent.

(Staff writer Tammy Keith can be reached by e-mail at tammy@thecabin.net or by phone at 505-1238.)