A ceremonial ribbon cutting for the new Goshen High School gymnasium preceded Goshen High School’s Honor’s Day Program Friday morning.
Dr. Mark Bazzell, Pike County Superintendent of Education, said most ribbon cuttings are held with only a few people present.
Because the new gymnasium will positively impact the students at Goshen High School and the Goshen community for many years to come, Bazzell said he wanted the students, parents and community members to be in attendance when the ribbon was cut.
“The idea for the new gymnasium began as a capital improvement plan eight years ago,” Bazzell said. “As the plan developed, we discovered the $2 million price tag would not give us the facility that we wanted.”
Bazzell said the Pike County Board of Education set about saving pennies to build the ideal facility for GHS.
The $3.4 million facility is more than a gymnasium, Bazzell said. It includes, locker rooms for all sports and for physical education, office space, meeting rooms and restroom facilities.
The gym is a state-of-the-art facility and one that would be the envy of most schools of any size.
“It would have been easier to build the $2 million facility but you only get to build a facility like this every 35 to 40 years,” Bazzell said. “This gymnasium is going to serve the students and the Goshen community for a long time. We wanted to do it right and we did it right.”
Goshen Mayor Jack Waller agreed that the Pike County Board of Education “did it right.”
“The new gym is a prize for the entire Goshen community,” Waller said. “We’re all proud of it. We look forward to other teams coming here and seeing what Goshen High School has got. I believe that it’s going to make our basketball teams more competitive.”
Waller said the new gymnasium provide an indoor facility for special school events.
“Before now, we’ve had to pray that it didn’t rain at graduation because our gym was too small to fit everybody in,” he said. “That’s in the past. This is a great facility and one we can all take pride in.”
Chris Wilkes, board member who represents the Goshen area, said it was exciting to be a part of the official opening of the new gym.
“This is something that Goshen High School has wanted for quite a while,” Wilkes said.
“We are very proud to be able to provide this to our students. This gym should serve our school and our community very well for many years to come.”