School district and NOTFC working toward amenable solutions


The Junior Jammers raised funds for NOTFC belt buckle trophies at their annual Country Harvest Hoedown. Photo by Nancy Grindstaff
By: 
Nancy Grindstaff
Weiser’s School District and the National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest board are working on ideas to accommodate next summer’s Fiddletown campers, while a new plan is worked out for a different camping spot during Weiser’s 10-day second-to-none music festival.
 Earlier this year, the school district began improving the nine-acre site referred to as the soccer fields, with the goal of developing the entire area into a full, first-rate sports complex. Initial steps in that development were completed with the removal of the trees that surrounded the field in May, and followed up later this summer by installing a fence around the field’s entire perimeter.
 In the meantime, local school patrons approved a school supplemental levy this past May that included funds to rebuild and enhance Weiser High School’s track and field facility. The construction of the track got underway in September, with hopes of seeing its completion by early November. Some sporadic rain and then temperatures not staying consistently above 50 degrees has moved the project’s estimated completion date out to sometime in April.
 In a discussion early this month between WSD Superintendent Kenneth Dewlen and NOTFC local board chairman Gary Hill, some initial ideas for transitioning the campers out of the sports complex area were tossed around.
 During the Nov. 11, monthly Weiser School Board meeting, Dewlen summarized the tentative plans.
 Dewlen first said he had reassured the Hills (Gary and Joya) that the school district wants to continue working with the NOTFC.
 “We value what this brings and we know the community knows what this brings, and we want to keep it,” Dewlen said. “However, we need to look at a different arrangement for parking 30,000-pound campers.”
 Dewlen said the initial discussion included a two-year plan that next summer would move campers to the school’s parking lot. It would also allow tent camping in the grass south of the softball fields and in the triangle at the intersection of Indianhead Road and West 7th Street.
 “The following year, we want to move the campers over to the (farm) land we own because that guy’s gone now, so there’s nobody on that land cultivating or growing anything, so that land becomes ours again,” he said.
 The amount of time the expansive grass on the soccer field goes without water before and during the contest weighs largely into the district’s concerns over maintaining the condition of the sports complex. With the increased weights of large motorhomes and campers over time, irrigation on the field is now cut off 10 days ahead of the contest’s start to prevent ruts, remaining unwatered for approximately 20 days. Additionally, there are more trips in and out of the area to the RV dump, with damage to sprinklers and water lines from the additional trips.
 Although school trustees didn’t make an official decision on the matter, after pitching some ideas to make the transition palatable, Dewlen agreed to having another conversation with the NOTFC board members. 
 Before Thanksgiving break, Dewlen told the Signal American a second meeting with the Hills and other key players in the district had taken place.
 “Right now they are trying to come up with a solution that can meet the needs of all parties involved,” he said. 

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Signal American

18 E. Idaho St.
Weiser, ID 83672
PH: (208) 549-1717
FAX: (208) 549-1718
 

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