Large donation spurs on Lakeville’s diving well project
Heat turned up on aquatics plan after district receives $20,000 from swim, business community
From left, community members Dave Smith, Sally Chatelaine, Chuck Alexander and Tom Ruesink present a $20,000 check to the Lakeville Area Public School District in order to pay for a study and design plan for a new diving well at Kenwood Trail Middle School. Photo by Derrick Williams
by Derrick Williams
Thisweek Newspapers
The long and winding road that has been Lakeville’s aquatics quandary took another turn this week.
During the Lakeville School Board’s April 13 meeting, the district was presented with a $20,000 donation from private and local business donors with the explicit purpose of funding a study and design concept for a diving well at Kenwood Trail Middle School.
Such a plan would get the wheels moving on construction for a new facility that would offer Lakeville and both its high schools’ swimming and diving teams their first complete competition facility.
Currently, the only competition pool is at Kenwood Trail, and the only competition diving well is at McGuire Middle School.
“It’s been 18 years since the original plans for a well at Kenwood were put on hold,” resident Sally Chatelaine told the board during the presentation. “Now we could be within months of making this a reality.”
Last year, a task force commissioned by the school board recommended a two- phase approach to solving Lakeville’s pool needs. The first phase was to construct a diving well at Kenwood.
The second phase would involve constructing a new pool and well at Century Middle School.
Cost estimates for the new diving well have been as high as $2.3 million, but more recently, Wold Architects, has estimated the project at $1.77 million.
“We all can appreciate that we need to finalize both the design needs and cost before proceeding with finalizing the project,” Chatelaine said.
Superintendent Gary Amoroso said he was grateful for the donation.
“It will allow us to move forward with the design process,” he said.
It’s unknown how soon the study could be commissioned.
The donors include Ames Construction, Dick’s Sanitation, Kohlnhofer Agency, McNamara Contracting, Schmitty and Sons and Tradition Development, Chatelaine said.
E-mail Derrick Williams at:
lakeville.thisweek@ecm-inc.com
