By By MARCIA STEFFENS / Edwardsburg Argus
EDWARDSBURG -- With only a lecture hall which seats 300, the need is great in Edwardsburg for a facility to hold all the parents eager to watch their youngsters perform.
It is the hope of the Superintendent of Schools, that the final part of a five year plan for improvements in the Edwardsburg Public School District will soon fall into place.
Voters will be asked to approve a tax millage this September not to exceed .50 which would go toward the 6.2 million dollars needed to build an auditorium which would be available for both school and community needs.
The plans are for "nice, but not lavish," said Sherman Ostrander, as he presented the drawings to the audience at the June School Board meeting.
It would be located between the Middle School and the High School, attaching to the fine arts department, and lining up with the front of the Middle School, with a connecting corridor. It would match the current construction with functional split face block. Plans include a large stage, mechanical and dressing areas and room for storage.
The main concern, Ostrander said, voiced by the people in fine arts who were instrumental in helping on the design, was that there be an orchestra pit. Also sound and lighting took priority over looks.
Making the auditorium stadium style, without a balcony, saved 30 percent, Ostrander told the board. "It is as conservative as we are going to get. The mission you gave me was not to exceed .50."
For someone with a $200,000 house in the district, the new millage would amount to about $50 a year.
Five hundred parents came to see the kindergartners perform. The proposed auditorium will seat between 750 and 800, still, he admitted not enough to hold the high school graduations.
Construction, if approved, would take 14 to 15 months, Ostrander said. The firm of Kingscott of Kalamazoo drew up the proposal.
More meetings are scheduled in the coming months concerning the proposal.
The polls will be open on Sept. 16 from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. for the special election, pending acceptance. The proposal five years ago, failed by only four votes.