Rubber’s down and lights are up! Imbler celebrates first home football game with new lights and track surfacing
By Garrett Christensen on Friday, October 4th, 2024 in More Top Stories Northeastern Oregon News
IMBLER – When Imbler’s track and field community project first began fundraising in July of 2023, the final construction may have seemed like a lifetime away. Over a year later, crews officially broke ground on the new track on August 20, 2024. Roughly a month and a half later, the track has officially received its rubber surfacing and is almost ready for running. Not only that, but with the new field lighting installed, the Imbler community can look forward to the school’s first home football game of the year this evening at 7:00 p.m.
Work isn’t quite done yet, however. Though the primary construction of the track has finished, funds are still needed for supporting elements, including an equipment storage shed, aluminum bleachers, and track equipment (hurdles, pads, etc.). In total, the Imbler Track Foundation is hoping to raise an additional $260,000 dollars to pay for remaining equipment and construction costs. As explained by committee chair Ian Gordon:
“We’re pretty much done with construction of the track and the field events. The only thing left in terms of construction is we’d like to be able to build a storage building to keep the equipment in, but that might be a year from now when we do that. Right now, what we’re trying to do is raise $260,000, and what that’ll get is all the equipment we need, so things like the hurdles and the pads and such. It’ll also get us a basic timing system.”
The plan is also, tentatively, to have the Imbler ag construction class build the storage shed once materials are purchased. As a side note, though additional funds still need to be raised, the project is, compared to initial estimations, coming in under budget at 1.2 million dollars total. For any track athletes hoping to break in the new track, whether it will be tournament ready this school year will depend largely on scheduling and if the additional equipment can be purchased in time.
Though no major fundraisers are currently planned, donations and support are always accepted. More information on the project and how to donate can be found at https://imblertrack.org/?fbclid=IwY2xjawFsAT5leHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHQnZDIycyo6DsnNQkq6YE_CbtR8oc_FTmLnEMTrZ5UHNXdeqbFye1-Gslw_aem_Pl68RhT-6XNgq48aNh8G1A
