By Greg Halbleib

MACKINAW – Deer Creek-Mackinaw school district voters are being asked to approve a $6 million project that would include the first improvements to the football field in decades and installation of the school’s first track–and at no net tax increase.

Dee-Mack superintendent Scott Dearman said voters are being asked to approve a 30-cent increase in the education fund rate to $3.15, but the bond rate for the project would drop by the same amount to 77 cents.

Dearman said the football field has not been updated in decades and has inadequate restrooms, concession areas, press box and lighting, plus the light poles are too close to the field. The superintendent also said the school would finally have a track.

“We have state champion track athletes, but we don’t have a track,” Dearman said. “They run in our school hallways or they run out in the streets, or they go up to a cemetery that’s nearby mainly out of necessity for safety reasons as a place they can go and run and not worry too much about traffic.”

Dearman says the field and track would be constructed at an angle at the current location to accommodate the new facility’s size, and have a more durable surface.

“When we do that, we also eat up our practice field which we use for band, physical education, football and other activities,” Dearman said. “That necessitates the need to put in synthetic turf, something that can be used on a daily basis and not show the wear that a natural grass field would.”

The field would be a synthetic surface since the new stadium footprint would eliminate a practice area. Dearman says if weather cooperates, the work would be completed by next August.

Parking lot improvements and roof repairs would also be included in the project. If approved, work could begin in January and be completed by the beginning of the next school year in August.

Greg Halbleib can be reached at [email protected].