The Inter-Mountain photos by Edgar Kelley Elkins High School athletic director Ross Ware and Tiger football coach Jimmy Hankins sit with a group of EHS football players at this week’s Randolph County Board of Education meeting.

Tygarts Valley High School principal and head girls basketball coach Steve Wamsley speaks to the Randolph County Board of Education.

The Inter-Mountain photos by Edgar Kelley
Elkins High School athletic director Ross Ware and Tiger football coach Jimmy Hankins sit with a group of EHS football players at this week’s Randolph County Board of Education meeting.

ELKINS — After hearing public comment from both Elkins High School and Tygarts Valley High School officials, the Randolph County Board of Education gave the go-ahead this week for the installation of AstroTurf on the playing surface as part of Phase 2 of the football stadium project at EHS.

The second phase of the project will also include the revamping of the track at the school. Phase 1 of the project was completed in October with the installation of the bleachers at the new EHS football field.

Superintendent of Schools Debbie Schmidlen, who was absent from Tuesday evening’s BOE meeting due to a family emergency, recommended in the meeting’s agenda that the purchase of turf/track for the EHS sports facility be made in the amount of $1,646,114.94.

During the public comment section at the start of the meeting, Tygarts Valley High School principle and girls basketball coach Steve Wamsley asked the board to consider spending some of the funding on a new gymnasium at TVHS.

“I feel like I had to be here tonight to represent our school and our area,” Wamsley said. “The gym that we play in was built in 1950. My father and I, as well as my children have all played there. I think three generations is enough and I hate to think that my grandkids might be playing there some day as well.

“Safety is a huge issue,” he said. “There is a brick wall that is 46 inches from the playing area which is very dangerous, along with many other issues. This is an embarrassing and dangerous situation that has been going on for years at Tygarts Valley. I never thought for one minute that we would have to come down here and explain ourselves”

Wamsley said other teams from throughout the state will not come to the school and play because of the gym being dangerous. He also said that the Elkins High School volleyball team refuses to play at TVHS because the ceiling in the gymnasium, which is currently leaking water onto the stage area, is too low.

Elkins football coach Jimmy Hankins and EHS athletic director Ross Ware attended the meeting, alongside coaches from other sports at the school. A handful of current EHS football players joined them in attendance.

Ware also spoke during the public comment section of the meeting, saying, “We’ve done our job at Elkins High School with this project. We’ve met with the companies and got the price down $350,000 to be closer where we were asked to make the project more possible.

“Thank you guys for Phase 1, we are trying to get Phase 2 done tonight so we can start our fundraising efforts toward Phase 3, which is concession stand expansion and working on the field house,” he said to the BOE members.

Later in the meeting, when the board was scheduled to vote on the issue, BOE President Lisa Wamsley suggested the issue be tabled until after next week, when a meeting is scheduled to take place with a firm to discuss other options for the gymnasium at Tygarts Valley.

“The firm’s entire team, the planning team, architect and their project manager will all be here,” Assistant Superintendent Joseph Arbogast said of next week’s meeting. “We are having that meeting and it’s scheduled for next Tuesday at 9 a.m. We are going to go back and look at some options and have a round-table discussion concerning the gym at Tygarts Valley.”

BOE member Melodee Price voiced her opinion that tabling the issue might extend from one week into multiple weeks. She said that in order for everything to fall in place and for the project to be completed by next year, a decision had to be made.

“If we keep pushing it back, to the next meeting and to the next meeting, we risk being able to stay within that bid time (for the project),” Price said. “Those prices (for the project) are for a limited time.”

A vote followed to decide the fate of the project. By a count of 3-2 the project was approved, with BOE members Price, Rachel Anger and Assistant Vice President Janie Newlon voting yes.

President Lisa Wamsley and BOE member Amanda Smith both voted against moving forward with the project. They both represent the Tygart District of Randolph County.

“I’m not saying not to have the project, I’m saying there needs to be plans in place for other parts of the county,” Smith said before the vote.

After the vote for the project was approved, members of the board, along with Director of Finance/Treasurer/Purchasing Brad Smith, discussed several ways to find funding for the gymnasium at Tygarts Valley. No decision was made on the issue.

TVHS Principal Steve Wamsley told the Inter-Mountain Wednesday he and the school were disappointed with Tuesday night’s decision.

“We were told that the funding for a new gym could be available soon,” Wamsley said. “Since that time we have been told that the prioritizing of that funding has since changed. We are incredibly disappointed because we feel that we may never get the chance at this type of funding again.”

Ware told the Inter-Mountain on Wednesday that he was ecstatic with the board’s decision.

“We are definitely 100 percent happy with the outcome,” Ware said. “It was a historic decision for Randolph County Schools and is something that is going to benefit the whole county. It was a no-brainer and a good decision on the board’s part.”

Ware said he plans to meet with a contractor next week to start working on a timeline to begin the work at EHS.