After a meeting Wednesday between city and school officials at the high school, it appears to be all but a certainty that the two Pirate varsity locker rooms in the new Crookston Sports Center will be furnished in time for the grand opening on Jan. 30 with locker-type equipment.
But how much it will cost exactly and how exactly the furnishings will look and function remain to be seen.
Since early on in the construction process, there were indications from the school district's end, specifically, through the Pirate hockey coaches, that some private fund-raising might help furnish the locker rooms, or that industrial technology students at CHS might even build some type of locker furnishings.
But with nothing apparently materializing and the grand opening fast approaching, the city Ways & Means Committee last week OK'ed the purchase, for about $13,000, of furnishings for both the boys' and girls' varsity locker rooms. There would be 30 locker units per locker room, each two feet wide.
The thinking was that the style of locker chosen from Becker Arena Products would be shown to school officials, and if they didn't like what they saw, they'd be on their own to furnish the locker rooms.
On Wednesday, school officials liked what they saw, sort of, City Administrator Aaron Parrish said, but they're still looking to do some private fund-raising to potentially enhance what the city is looking to purchase. Or, the school might go in a different direction entirely.
At a meeting Wednesday between Parrish, Scott Kleven and Scott Riopelle from Parks & Recreation, School District Business Manager Laura Lyczewski, School Board member Bob Altringer and Pirate hockey coaches Jon Bittner and Tim Persson, it was requested that, if the school raises additional funds and picks a different type of locker, the city apply the $13,000 it would have spent toward whatever the district chooses to purchase.
"That's the idea that was thrown around," Parrish said. "They want to know from all parties concerned what the overall direction is going to be on this, and they'll be getting back to us. That's kind of how it was left."
