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This weekend Carleton students voted in the CSA 2015 Winter election to allocate funds to create an outdoor basketball court. 440 students were in favor, and 656 were in opposition. Only one sixth of the student body, approximately 340 students, needed to vote in favor of a this proposal in order for it to pass.
Ian Fischer ’15 is the Committee for Special Projects representative for the outdoor basketball court project. His job is to work with the student who proposed the project to decide whether if it is feasible. After talking to Facilities, Grounds, and the Rec Center, Fischer and the committee determined that it was a plausible project and put it on the ballot for referendum.
Now, they are looking for a new location for the outdoor courts. The current location is in a parking lot behind West Gym. “They haven’t been maintained for several years,” said Jay Stadler, Grounds Manager.
Simply resurfacing the existing courts is not an option because the courts are in a flood zone near the Cannon River. “The surface isn’t good. I think largely due to the annual flooding and administration’s reluctance to put too much money into improving flood prone areas,” explained Stadler.
Mikki Showers, Director of Recreation and Sports and Rec Center Manager said, “I could see it benefiting the Rec in a couple of different ways because we would have equipment that kids could check out. If it was close to the Rec we could work on this.”
Showers explained that if the new courts were near the Rec they could be equipped by the rec and also used by the Rec PE classes. Her ideas include surfacing the courts with a multi-use material so that group fitness classes could use it, and student clubs could reserve it. “Maybe it could even be a skating rink– we have the skates here,” she said.
She did, however express concerns about the project not getting
finished, and the details of who, in the long run would pay for maintenance. “I don’t even know what $30,000 can get. If things last for 20 years, who pays for replacements?”
“I thought the proposed cost was pretty expensive for courts that probably won’t be used that much. So I just thought it was unnecessary and didn’t vote for it,” said an anonymous student.
Fisher emphasized that the project is only in the planning stages. “It is not one-hundred percent certain that it will move beyond the planning stage,” he said.
