At the board’s Monday night (June 8) meeting, Pollmann said the facilities committee — on which he and board members Tim Kerkvliet and Julie Asbaugh serve — recommends re-prioritizing other planned maintenance so the track can be repaired sooner than originally planned.
Instead of merely filling cracks, the work will involve replacing the existing asphalt, adding a fabric layer, and topping that with a rubberized coating. The project hasn’t gone out for bids, but an initial estimate shows it might cost about $220,000.
“The real cost here is in that rubberized layer and that fabric that goes in between,” said Pollmann in an interview after the board meeting.
He added the district hopes to complete the track by Aug. 17, the start of the football season, in time for next school year’s track and field events.
The track resurfacing won’t require new spending, but Pollmann said the district hasn’t yet decided what other projects will be pushed back. “It’ll be up to (Superintendent Daron VanderHeiden) and (Buildings and Grounds Director Brian Mohr) to make recommendations,” he said.
Pollmann said three reasons led his committee to recommend fast-tracking the track refurbishing. “We had hoped to fix this for some time now with some of the bond referendums,” he said.
Since votes on new building plans have been defeated in recent years, replacing the track has also been delayed. “It’s beyond the point that it can wait … ,” Pollmann said.
Other reasons for speeding up the repair included reports of recent injuries incurred by track and field athletes on the track. Also, when Hutchinson High School hosted an April 16 track meet, other schools’ teams reportedly said they wouldn’t return for a meet in Hutchinson until a new track surface was put in.
(Jorge Sosa is a staff writer for the Hutchinson Leader. He can be reached at [email protected])
Perennially judged as one of Minnesota’s and the nation’s best community newspapers, the Hutchinson Leader serves 20 communities in McLeod, Meeker, Renville, Sibley and Wright counties. 
The added level would make room on the mural wall for all the heroes of our community plus the second level (on the inside), could be a shrine to those that have brought trophies and awards to the community. Hey, it could be our new Hutchinson Hall of Fame! Wow, I really like this idea! Maybe Kay would donate the money for this as well? Someone would need to get Lance a few more gallons of paint of course. I think if she donated to the HHoF, she should be allowed to have her likeness immortalized in wax. Hey, this should be a wax hall of fame with each of the people you have mentioned represented inside with a wax full-sized statue. Now, would this put Hutch on the map or what? Move aside twineball...we will have something that people will drive for miles to see! Our town would be the talk of the midwest. And, it would increase traffic on the Luce Line trail as people would come out in droves from the Cities to see this facility.
And... if we start winning state basketball tournaments, we could always add more levels until we have the tallest building in Minnesota west of the IDS. And, when it gets to be 7 stories or so high, we would have a nice lookout area to watch the water (not) go over our waterfall. Finally, we could have a viewing scope on the observation deck that would look westward. And, if you looked close enough, you would see the magic tunnel. :)
There are endless possibilities for this. Let's git r dun!
Gosh, this is all falling in place. And, again, some say that our banter in this forum is not productive!
Mayor Cook, would you be willing to sponsor this idea? We could call it the Cook-Kay Hall of Fame Center. (not to be confused with a cookie hall of fame center)
Track team + Rubber surface = Lots and lots of state participants.
Makes sense to me. Let me try another.
Hoop team + Rubber surface = Lots and lots of success for Coach V.
Nope, that one doesn't work. Any suggestions on my equation?
Records... poles have gotten better, spikes have gotten lighter, weight training (and equipment) has improved, etc. One would expect that records would continue to improve. The track only adds one more element of technology to the other advancements in sports science. But yes, I can't wait to see how many state qualifiers we will have now.
Hopefully Hutch will be able to host an invitational and possibly a couple smaller meets. At the very least, the athletes can feel good about training with good tools. Again, great job SB!!!!