[UPDATE] Majority in Patch Poll Vote for New Field House

A change to the boys’ locker room at Cheshire High School is almost certain. What’s not clear, and hasn’t been for months, is what kind of change will be approved. Here are three options being considered:

• Building a free standing field house
• Expanding the existing locker room
• Upgrading the existing locker room

Those options are being considered by a newly formed subcommittee of school and town officials. But, with a capital budget deadline of June 1, the panel has just two weeks to decide on a course of action.

An update on the details of the project will be given at the Board of Education meeting tonight, (May 17) at 7:30 p.m. at Town Hall.

“We don’t want to just solve one issue,” said board Chairman Gerald Brittingham. “We’re going over the dollars for the best solution,” he said. “Everything is on the table.”

A separate field house, Brittingham said, would provide 8,000 square feet of space at a cost of $1.5 million. Expanding the existing locker room would cost $1.2 million and only add 1,200 square feet to the room, he said.

“I think the best solution is the separate structure,” Brittingham concluded. He said for an additional $300,000 a new building could be constructed that would provide plenty of space, new public bathrooms and solve the issue of providing an all-accessible locker room.

The additional cost of about $500,000 to build a ramp to comply with the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) was one reason the original project was delayed at the Town Council level.

A time table for the project was provided by the Public Building Commission's Field House Committee.

• School board approves five-year capital plan tonight, May 17.
• Request for a new field house in 2013-14 capital budget expected to be submitted to Town Manager by June 1.
• The Town Council begins capital budget review on July 1.

Which plan to do support? Vote in our poll below and tell us what you think.