Elgin School District’s BARN project raises nearly $600,000, years ahead of schedule
By Garrett Christensen on Friday, November 8th, 2024 in More Top Stories Northeastern Oregon News
ELGIN – Agriculture is a cornerstone of Eastern Oregon. Farming, ranching, and forestry work all hold key roles in many communities across the region. For students in the Elgin School District, a new project is on the horizon that will greatly expand their potential for agricultural education, and it may be coming sooner than anyone expected.
For those unfamiliar, the Building Agricultural Resources Network, or “BARN,” project aims to build a multi-use agricultural learning center for the Elgin School District’s agricultural classes, FFA chapter, and 4-H chapters, offering a hands-on learning space for students. The facility will offer labs and classrooms, a commercial kitchen, a meeting hall, and facilities for students to keep and raise livestock if they don’t have property of their own.
The project began around 2021 when the Elgin FFA program was donated twelve sheep and needed land to keep them. The district eventually agreed to purchase a 4-acre parcel of land in the city industrial park and a conjoining three-acre parcel near Phillips Creek. After acquiring the land, the project continued to increase in scope until it was decided to construct a new facility all together. In 2023, Elgin Agricultural Science & Technology Instructor Daniel Bolen applied for, and received, a $250,000 CTE Revitalization Grant from the Oregon Department of Agriculture. From there, various grants have continued to come in, including a recent $75,000 grant from the John and Ginger Niemeyer Foundation. As explained by Bolen in a recent interview:
“It has just really taken off. We’ve received additional grant funding to support our projects with the BARN facility as well as a community space through the Wild Horse Foundation, the Clayton and Lori Fox FFA Enhancement Foundation, the Roundhouse Foundation, and then more recently just received one from the Niemeyer Foundation through the Oregon Community Foundation.”
Currently, the project sits at just under $600,000 dollars raised in grant funding and donations. Plans for the BARN are going through a final revision by the designer. Following this, they’ll be reviewed by an engineer and architect for final approval. The next major step is the public bid process. As explained by Bolen:
“Our school board has already voted to approve sending it to bid. So, we’ll put out a formal bid announcement seeking contractors to build the facility for us. Hopefully we’ll be putting it out here to bid probably by the end of the calendar year. And funding wise, our estimates are that the whole project with land and everything is going to probably come in at just about a million dollars.”
Already being at over half the estimated needed funds, the plan is going to shift a bit. In addition to the two original parcels, the district had also purchased another three-acre parcel early on with an old farm supply store on it. As the BARN project was originally anticipated to take five-to-seven years, it was planned to renovate the store into an FFA clubhouse building, which would act as a stopgap classroom and community space. With the BARN project so far ahead of schedule, the FFA clubhouse is now redundant. As explained again by Bolen:
“We made a decision as a district that it would be most financially responsible to actually sell the clubhouse building before we’ve invested a whole lot of money into it. It, logistically, does not make sense to pay insurance for two buildings, to pay utilities for two buildings, and to have this building that would sit empty for a fair amount of time.”
The other 3-acre parcel will also likely be sold off alongside the clubhouse parcel. Instead, the district will focus its efforts and funding on the primary 4 acres, incorporating the planned community spaces from the clubhouse into the BARN project’s design. In the meantime, work is underway prepping the primary parcel for construction and livestock usage. The plan is for students to be involved in the construction process for the BARN facility. As explained by Bolen:
“We’re going to utilize students through our construction program and in cooperation with contractors to actually teach students about building trade skills and doing all the interior finishes in the building.”
Even now, students from Bolen’s classes are working on fencing part of the perimeter. Tentatively, fencing and groundwork will continue through the fall and winter if weather permits. After that, groundbreaking will likely take place in March or April 2025.
When completed, it won’t just be students getting use of the BARN either. Tentatively, members of the community will be allowed to rent out different spaces in the facility, such as the commercial kitchen, while local nonprofit and community organizations will have free access. As best described by Bolen:
“I think it’s going to make a great community resource space for different organizations in the community, as well as becoming almost like a regional resource for our other agriculture programs around here. We are actually slated to host the state FFA soils competition in October of 2026, and so our facility is going to be the central hub point for that.”
For anyone in the community interested in supporting the project, contact Daniel Bolen at the Elgin High School at 541-437-2021. Future fundraisers are planned, such as dessert auctions and a silent auction, but nothing immediately scheduled. Elgin FFA students are also selling hazelnut gift baskets, the proceeds of which will help the BARN project.
