An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure is the background of an action this week by the Rhinelander School Board to accelerate renovations at Mike Webster Stadium.
The board voted to spend money now from the district's maintenance budget to correct problems at the stadium that could threaten the highly-praised track at the site. The cost is $486,000.
Athletic Director Brian Paulson says private foundation funding got the track built two years ago which greatly upgraded that portion of the field.
He says they have a three-phase plan to upgrade the facility but school officials found a problem that needed fixing now...
"...there's probably 8 inches to a foot of a dropoff from the track to the grass football-soccer field. With the heavy rain we've had, the rain is starting to wash away the inside of the track, the dirt and that, almost to the point where it is getting a bit close to the blacktop. If there was more damage, if we didn't take action, it could hurt our track that cost a half-million dollars...."
Paulson says getting the work done now will save problems...
"long term investment, we believe, was to step up and do phase two a lot sooner than we thought we would have to. We need to put a slot drain on the outside of the track and be able to raise the field up. The track will have water run off into the slot drain to the inside. The football field will be a slight crown to the football-soccer field and the water will drain right off out of there...."
The work will be in two phases. The board approved spending $286,000 for the field work. Maintenance is being done to correct the problem, but was said to be only a band-aid until a long term fix could be done.
