Plans are moving ahead for Olpe Fitness Park following a contentious time at the USD 252 Southern Lyon County school board meeting last week.
Board members voted 4-3 for the district to give the project $600,000, but the committee will be responsible for covering any project costs over $2.5 million. Tim Bailey, Ryan Gasche, Brad Hoelting and Charlie Steffes were in favor, while Melissa Carson, Emily Darbyshire and Gene Windle voted against the funding.
Superintendent Ryan Muhlig says the $600,000 is coming from the district’s capital outlay fund and is essentially a reset from past Fitness Park Committee requests as opposed to additional funding.
This past December, the committee said it had raised $2.5 million to meet fundraising deadlines, including $600,000 from the district. Following ongoing concerns about whether the committee actually reached the overall mark, committee member Tyler Schmidt says the full $2.5 million donation total — with the district funding — was spoken for shortly after the district’s last regular meeting of the calendar year.
Schmidt says the late donation was enough to meet deadlines, but the committee decided to reset its request to the district because there was no special meeting to address the late funding update at the end of last year.
KVOE News has reached out to all school board members for comment. None have agreed to interviews so far.
Muhlig says he is not concerned about the Fitness Park Committee’s financials, although those questions continue to swirl in Hartford, Neosho Rapids and other parts of the district. The other key concern, though, is whether funding for the Olpe project eliminates dollars for unrelated work at Hartford or Neosho Rapids. Muhlig says it doesn’t.
Both Muhlig and Schmidt say there will be benefits across USD 252 once the Olpe Fitness Park is built, although it may not be a direct effect outside Olpe.
Meanwhile, work is moving forward. Bids went out to seven general contractors last week with the goal of a groundbreaking event at some point this fall. Fundraising continues for Phase 2 at the same time.
Separately, board members are moving forward with the 2025-26 budget for publication purposes, and Muhlig says the levy is virtually flat from the 2024-25 budget.
