Student athletes at North Platte Community College can now take pride in more than just their athletic abilities – they can also be proud of the newly renovated athletic facilities at the McDonald-Belton gymnasium.
“We are thrilled with the new facilities,” said NPCC Lady Knights Volleyball Coach Sally Thalken. “We have needed them for a long time and the college made the right step in getting it done. The college and the community should be very proud of these facilities.”
Thalken has good reason to be thrilled with the changes. The new facilities boast four new student locker room areas, a central training room, a laundry and soft ice area, and even a dedicated locker room for officials.
“The biggest issue we had in the past was that the locker rooms were just not as functional as they should have been,” Thalken said. “We didn’t have enough space, so it was always a juggling act. For example, when we had a tournament, there were girls in the locker room when the boys needed to be there. Or there were players from the opposing team sharing the locker rooms.”
Thalken added that not having a designated training room was also a problem.
“We used a hospital curtain to have a makeshift training room,” she said.
The new facilities include separate locker rooms for the women’s basketball team, the volleyball team, and the men’s basketball team, as well as one for visiting teams and one for game officials. Each of the locker rooms feature multiple showers, restrooms, vanity areas, and secured storage areas. They also sport synchronized game clocks, motion activated lighting, and secured entry. The men’s locker room also features extra-wide lockers with seating benches.
Work is still in progress on the athletic training room. When completed, it will feature multiple taping tables, a whirlpool, training equipment, and an office for the athletic trainer. Across the hall there is a laundry area with a front loading, high capacity washer and dryer and a soft ice machine.
A new commercial elevator, located in the southeast hallway of the building, will allow individuals access to the upper level of the building without having to climb stairs.
“Installing a public elevator into an existing building ended up being quite a challenge for the contractors,” said Ron Axtell, NPCC Director of Physical Resources. “They ran into several unforeseen items, such as re-enforcement of footings in base of elevator shaft, extra masonry in the elevator shaft, and HVAC issues.”
Axtell said the elevator was definitely not the only challenge faced during the renovation.
“The logistics of working out the details with the architect, administration, coaches and facility staff to figure out the best way to make four locker rooms out of two, plus allow for training space, storage space, an ADA approved public elevator, and new HVAC system was extremely challenging,” he said. “Multiple meetings resulted in finding the best way to maximize space available for minimal cost or, in other words, we had to be very creative in figuring out how to get ten pounds into a five pound bag!”
Axtell noted that moving everything to temporary storage space and then back in once the project was complete was another challenge for the maintenance staff.
“The maintenance staff should be commended on all the work they did,” he said.
Axtell said he was very pleased with the project’s general contractor, Dowhower Construction, as well as the sub-contractors that were brought onboard for the project. He gave special thanks to NPCC HVAC/Electrician Shaun Pagel for working closely with sub-contractors Platte Valley Electric and A.J. Heating and Air to work out several issues that arose.
“The end result is a quality product, delivered on time, and within overall budget constraints,” he said.
Ryan Purdy, Area Vice President of Administrative Services, agreed.
“We are still finishing up some of the smaller things, but overall the project was completed when it was supposed to be and it came in very close to the projected budget,” he said.