The Mingus Union High School wrestling room needs an overhaul.
Originally built in 1982, the 2,200-square foot facility suffers from, among other issues, loose wires, a sagging ceiling, no drinking fountain and a lack of central air conditioning. It is the only building on campus still ventilated solely by a swamp cooler.
“It doesn’t have air conditioning, and it needs it, especially when we’re in here practicing,” said MUHS English teacher Klint McKean. “In 2007, they switched all the buildings over to new units, and, for some reason, this building was left out.”
The building, which is also used — as it has been over the past 33 years — for aerobic workouts in such MUHS classes as body conditioning, weights and physical education, lost its drinking fountain after it stopped working in 2013, McKean said.
“The bathroom is inadequate [and] needs to be improved,” he said. “It works, [but] there’s not a drinking fountain in the building anymore.
“The heating and cooling need some serious work.”
Mold, the scent of which is immediately apparent upon entering the facility, also grows directly under the wrestling mats.
“So we need new floors,” McKean said. “We need to have space to put our mats down. Right now, we have to roll up two-and-a-half of our mats in big storage units behind the building and bring them in and out.
“A lot of the mats have been damaged in transport. They’ve been cut.”
According to McKean, an idea shared by Paul Tighe, district superintendent, would call for the renovation and expansion of the wrestling room to a two-level facility covering 7,500 square feet.
“It would give us more space, which we need when we’re running our offseason practices and we have our whole kindergarten-through-12th-grade group in here at once,” said McKean, whose Mingus Mountain Wrestling Club practices in the facility. “More than that, from what I’ve been told, the whole impetus of making this building bigger is to add classrooms to it.”
Under the plan, a ramp would connect at least four classrooms on the top level of the facility to a multipurpose ground floor, expanded on the slope north of Bright Field back to the MUHS auxiliary gym. There have been no cost estimates discussed for the proposal, McKean said, which would be contingent upon the passage of a district bond in election Tuesday, Nov. 3.
“This is not the reason for the bond,” said Anthony Lozano, district board member and MUHS wrestling coach from 1973 to 1987. “We have so much more to address. But this is within the idea.”
Voters need to register to vote by mail-in ballot by Monday, Oct. 5. Approval would mostly provide for more immediate capital upgrades for the district such as desks and buses.
For the full story, please see the Wednesday, Sept. 30, issue of the Cottonwood Journal Extra.
