SHELBY — A brand-new athletic complex will hopefully grace the campus of the Shelby City School District by August 2023.
The Shelby Board of Education unanimously voted at their Monday meeting to move forward with financing a $4 million athletic complex that will include a turf field, additional seating, and a pedestrian plaza.
The project will also refurbish the existing eight tennis courts and softball field, relocate the baseball field to just north of the high school’s auxiliary gym to improve traffic flow, and add hundreds of new parking spaces.
“It’s very exciting, and it’s been a long time coming,” said board member Scott Rose.
The project will be financed through Certificates of Participation (COPs), which will function as a lease-purchase agreement with the district renting the improvements from a bank or other third party.
“The board has done their due diligence with regard to looking at the costs associated and all the benefits we can provide for our students, staff members and the community in general,” said Supt. Tim Tarvin.
“Rather than passing that financial burden onto our community, we’re fortunate enough to have the financing available to us.”
The next step, Tarvin explained, will be for the district’s representatives to sell COPs to the public, which will take approximately eight weeks.
If the COPs are sold in a timely manner and capture good interest rates, Tarvin said, the district hopes to start the next step of the project in June, with an estimated completion date of August 2023.
The timing from a financial standpoint couldn’t be better. The district’s financial advisor, David Conley of Rockmill Financial Consulting, recommended at a special meeting on Feb. 22 the board move sooner rather than later in order to capture the lowest interest rate in financing the project.
In addition, a reduced interest rate on Shelby’s Pre-K through eighth grade facility project saved the district $4 million to put towards the athletic complex project.
Though the board moved forward with financing for the project, a resolution approving contracts for the athletic complex facility was tabled. That will be the next logical step, Tarvin said.
“We don’t want to get ahead of ourselves and start lining up contractors until that financing has been captured,” he explained. “We’re going to hire locally as much as we can, and this resolution will do just that.”
Completing the athletic complex in 2023 will be the finishing touch of a 10-year revitalization of Shelby City Schools, starting with the new Shelby High School that was completed in 2013.
“We used to have neighborhood schools in Shelby years ago,” Tarvin said. “Those have gone by the wayside for many years. So having all of our kids on one campus is an opportunity that has presented itself to us that we want to take advantage of.”
The district hopes to eventually make a contribution of the W.W. Skiles Field property to the city of Shelby, which could eventually be folded into the city’s downtown revitalization plans. Bringing Skiles up to code would’ve cost the district $11 million.
“I grew up in Shelby and I understand the attachment to Skiles,” Tarvin said. “But we’ve made the determination to move everything out here…and what I think of is the excitement that can generate in our community.
“We’re going to have 2,000 kids out here that can walk up to this facility and use it on a daily basis. That’s never happened before in Shelby, ever. So for me, that’s really, really exciting.”
