By ELIOT SILL

Staff writer

Although the project didn’t need board approval, the USD 408 board of education gave its blessing Monday to constructing a new press box at Warrior Stadium.

Superintendent Lee Leiker said the current press box was deteriorating.

“It leaks pretty bad. It’s got some wood that’s rotting, some siding that’s come off,” he said.

Gene Winkler of local-access cable channel MCTV approached the board last year.

“This has been an ongoing thing for a little over a year,” Leiker said. “We decided we could get one more year out of it, so we got this past year out of it.”

Leiker hopes to complete the project, estimated to cost less than $20,000, before football season. Board member Jan Helmer agreed.

“I think we need to do something,” she said.

Contrary to previous proposals, which featured a press box spanning the length of the stands, the new press box would have a single floor between the stadium’s red-painted steps.

The current press box has two stories. A ladder must be climbed to get to the second floor.

Facilities larger than 500 square feet must be accessible to people with disabilities, Leiker said, so instead of building a single large press box, separate boxes could eventually be built beside the new box without becoming subject to accessibility requirements.

“That is the loop hole,” Leiker said.

The new box will not accommodate any additional personnel. The current box accommodates MCTV, a public address announcer, a scorekeeper, and videographers and coaches for both teams.

Labor could be contributed, Leiker said, so the district would pay only for materials and disposal of old materials.

Leiker said the total purchase would be below the $20,000 threshold that requires board approval, but he wanted to be sure the board supported the idea before moving forward.

Aside from routine, beginning-of-year business, little else was discussed Monday.

Jeremiah Lange was elected president, though he was not in attendance. Helmer was elected vice president.

Monday’s meeting was the first for newly elected members Tim Young and Nick Kraus, who took over for outgoing members Chris Sprowls and Sarah Cope.