An upcoming meeting may shed more light on how the Ely School District will spend $5.25 million to improve school athletic facilities.
A July 28 school board study session will be devoted to the athletic facilities project and potential recommendations from the district’s facilities team.
The effort stems from action in the Minnesota Legislature in 2024, which allocated $250,000 to be spent at Veterans Memorial Field - the baseball stadium on the school campus - as well as another $5 million to be for overall athletic facility needs. Since then, district officials have met with local stakeholders, held their own conversations at the facility committee level and engaged representatives of SEH, an engineering firm.
At issue are needs that far exceed the funding available. In late-2024, SEH conducted an athletic facilities needs assessment that identified over $15 million in potential or recommended improvements to Ely school athletic facilities.
But at least for now, the district only has $5.25 million in available funds to address those proposals.
SEH did an extensive review of the district’s football, baseball and softball fields, the gymnasium and ice arena, as well as the weight room and old locker room inside the Memorial Building. Various options include expenditures for the potential relocation of the existing pickleball courts and bus garage.
SEH provided conceptual plans in a better than 30 page document with a total estimated cost for all improvements ranging from $15.4 to $17.2 million covering site improvements, exterior and interior improvements, HVAC upgrades and structural repairs.
The breakdown included $5.52 to $5.97 million in possible arena improvements, more than $6 million for the football stadium to include a possible upgrade to synthetic turf and replace the stadium grandstand, $3.5 to $4.1 million to regrade the baseball field, add a stand-alone restroom and concession building and other upgrades, nearly $600,000 for softball field improvements, about $350,000 in gymnasium renovations, and about $400,000 to rehabilitate the old downstairs locker room.
