Talk of renovating the track at the middle school quickly led to discussion of building a track at WCHS instead. 

During last week’s School Board meeting, board member Bill Zechman presented a funding scheme spearheaded by the Noon Rotary Club to renovate the track at Nunley Stadium. The organization also took the lead in its original construction back in the early 1980s.

However, since then, the track has not had any significant maintenance or resurfacing due to other more pressing school projects.

Zechman explained that through several potential grant opportunities, including Rotary, the Department of Health, Bridgestone, and public fundraising, a $100,000 middle school track renovation project has the potential for 100 percent funding.

Director of Schools Bobby Cox brought up another option.

“Back when the high school was built 25 years ago, the original plans were for a stadium there and to look at what a track would look like there,” said Cox.

Cox invited athletic director Todd Willmore and WCHS football and track coach Matt Turner to shed more light on the idea.

According to Willmore, there are multiple types of surfaces available with latex material being the cheapest option costing $117,500 to redo the track at WCMS. The issue with latex is its longevity.

“It’s going to be three to five years’ timeframe with having to be replaced so we run into issues such as driving on the track,” explained Willmore. “If we resurface it, we are going to have to do a better job making sure that doesn’t happen and we will have to eliminate the use of lanes one and two because they wear quicker with excessive use.”

Turner also pointed out additional issues with the WCMS track, including bad drainage along with lane design complaints.

“The bad thing about that track is it’s only six lanes,” said Turner. “Most high school tracks are eight lanes and I’m not sure how the starting line systems are.”

Willmore told the School Board there hasn’t been a high school event hosted at the WCMS track in around 20 years while adding the football field is also not to specifications. The field is missing about 12 feet of width and the end zone has been reduced.

“If we are going to do some work over there, we really need to consider the field,” said Willmore. “I also say that to say, one of our long-range plans would be to build a field, a stadium and a track out at the high school and we’ve got the space to do it.”

Both Willmore and Turner expressed the desire to bank the money for future use at WCHS instead of WCMS.

“The track is something that could be done with the forethought of having a stadium in 10 years,” said Turner. “The track could go down right now and there are so many programs that would benefit from having a track at the high school.”

No decision was reached during this discussion. A special called meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, Jan. 29 at 5 p.m. to continue deliberation.