Tuesday, February 29, 2000
Mason to show project design
High school, rec center may be built
BY SUE KIESEWETTER
Enquirer Contributor
MASON — Six full-size basketball courts and six outdoor sports practice fields are among the features planned for a recreation center to be built as part of a Mason Schools/Mason City joint complex along Mason-Montgomery Road.
The project, to be built on 73 acres the city owns between Main Street and Mason High School, will be constructed if voters approve a $71.9 million bond issue when they go to the polls March 7. If approved, the owner of a $200,000 house would pay an additional $249 in new taxes annually.
The design for the 355,000-square-foot high school and 128,000-square-foot recreation center will be unveiled during a community meeting that begins at 7 p.m. today at the Mason High School commons.
Cars would enter off a widened Mason-Montgomery Road and take one of five loops designed to keep vehicles moving and at the same time separate bus, student, school and community center traffic.
“The whole plan is set up to minimize contact between the community and school,” said project architect Earl Crossland, with Voorhis, Slone, Welsh & Crossland Architects.
That's why during the school day, the second-floor weight room, competition pool and two courts would be reserved for student physical education use, leaving the leisure pool and fieldhouse courts for community use. From 2:30 to 5:30 p.m., the schools would use the four courts in the fieldhouse for practice.
Doing so would allow the schools to schedule all athletic practices after school and keep the swim team in Mason, instead of traveling to the Coun tryside YMCA in Lebanon for evening practice, said Superintendent Kevin Bright.
The academic wings of the building would be three stories high while the recreation center would be two stories. There would be an eighth-mile walking/running track on the upper level overlooking the outside, fitness area, pool and gymnasium.
Outdoors, there would be a walkway connecting to jogging paths at the 228-acre Corwin M. Nixon Park.
The recreation center, at the northern end of the property, would have a 3,000-square-foot area for senior citizens, a 1,000-square-foot billiards room, indoor play area for children, an arts and crafts room, and a lounge with a nearby cafe. Offices for the city's parks and recreation center and meeting rooms for the community are also planned.
In the center of the building would be a 9,500-square-foot auditorium that would seat 800 on the lower level and 400 in the balcony, close to the stage. The cafeteria would serve as a lobby to the auditorium and to the eight-lane, 25-meter competition pool that would have seating for 800 spectators.
The high school portion, at the southern end of the building, would be designed with six learning clusters plus six academic classroom pods.
The six clusters would include: an area for health, physical education, fitness and nutrition; performing arts for band, chorus and drama; visual arts including drawing photography, ceramics and fiber; communications, including audio/visual, broadcasting, journalism, yearbook and graphic design; technology, including robotics and computer-assisted drafting; and business technology.
The design would allow for construction of a future 800-student wing and an 8,000-square-foot wellness center behind the arts and crafts rooms, Mr. Bright said. Three hospitals have been approached about the venture, still in the planning stages.
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