Rubber gym to be renovated

Chelsea Weeks, Claremore Daily Progress, Okla.
·2 min read

Jul. 13—Renovation of the "Rubber Gym" is in the early stages, Claremore Public Schools Superintendent Bryan Frazier said.

Frazier said the gym is in horrible condition, but has "good bones." Before the bond was passed in 2019, they looked at the gym to see if it could be renovated.

"The thought there was, is it possible that we can utilize the foundation, the concrete and the steel?" he said. "And if it had good bones, could we do something around it? And so that was early, early, early in the planning process? And the answer was yes."

Frazier said the goal is to increase performance in all athletics.

"You can't do that if you don't have resources to make them stronger, faster, and just have that ability to grow and to make them everything they can be," he said.

New features in store for the old gymnasium include a new HVAC system, flooring, plumbing, storage, lighting, paint, bathrooms, storage, staircase, coaches offices and bringing the building up to code. The gym will have 16 double racks which will create 32 workout stations and will be able to accommodate 100 athletes at one time.

"We're going to be able to really utilize the layout and some of the existing plumbing to try to reduce some of the costs in the renovation," he said.

Frazier said the building doesn't need a new roof, but will get a new roof ridge — which is the horizontal line where where the two roof planes meet — and insulation.

The project will be paid out of the 2019 bond package and is estimated to be around $1.8 million — which doesn't include equipment and furniture. Frazier said the flooring alone will be $300K — which will be part turf.

Frazier said they are working on getting the hard numbers, but thinks it's possible they'll go out to bid in either November or December.

Frazier said this facility will be a game-changer for all athletes and have a tremendous impact.

"The Performance Center is one thing that you can do that affects every athlete in our district," he said. "There are very few things that you build or can create, that everyone is born, every athlete is going to be affected by that in a positive way."

Frazier said students are stretched so that they can perform and do things they never thought they could do academically.

"Well, we want to do the same thing with our athletes," he said.