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Groundbreaking For New Gainesville School Project

Photo courtesy KTLO/Ozark County Times

Ground has been broken for a $3.7 million, 8,000-square-foot addition to the Gainesville High School.

The full story from KTLO is below:

The new structure, which will sit directly in the center front of the current building, will include a new facade, locker rooms, offices, a storage room and multi-use common area, according to a report in the Ozark County Times. The addition will also serve as a school and community storm shelter able to withstand 250-mph winds. As required by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the source of a portion of the funding for the building, the storm shelter will be open for students and staff during the school day, as well as for nearby residents anytime a tornado warning is issued – even outside school hours.

Gainesville superintendent Justin Gilmore says construction has begun and will continue through this school year. He says he hopes the work can be finalized before the start of the 2022-23 school year.

Gilmore says former Gainesville Superintendent Jeff Hyatt originally “got the ball rolling” for the FEMA shelter grant in 2017. After Hyatt’s retirement, Gilmore and the current school board took the reins and carried it through. The South Central Ozark Council of Governments (SCOCOG) also became involved early on and was instrumental in the grant-writing process.

The district was notified in October 2020 it had received the grant, which includes a total of $2.046 million in FEMA funding to build the storm shelter onto the front of the school. To complete the project, the school is required to pay a $227,424 match.

While some schools do leave their FEMA tornado shelters at that very basic level, Gilmore says the Gainesville School District plans to add a little more than $1 million in improvements on top of its $227,424 match to finish out the structure. Those funds will be used to pay for the things that are not eligible for FEMA funding but will make the space a more functional addition to the current building.

Gilmore says White River Valley Electric Cooperative (WRVEC) applied for the Rural Economic Development Loan and Grant (REDLG) program that would allow the entity to offer a $1 million interest-free loan to the Gainesville School District for the remaining costs involved with building and finishing the addition. WRVEC was the only cooperative in Missouri and one of only 14 in the country chosen for the grant.

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