Shutting the Public Out of the Armstrong Pavilion

One long term bright spot for the Decatur community has been the Armstrong Pavilion. It was built expressly for the community under the former MSD Decatur Township Superintendent Montgomery. The Pavilion is a metal building construction that houses a running track, some ball courts and a room with fitness equipment. Decatur residents can become members of the Pavilion for a token $5 per month, with a discount beyond that for our senior citizens.

Schools also use the Pavilion, but the community is the primary user of the facility.

As you all know, the School Board is now left to deal with the financial mess created by current Superintendent Don Stinson and Assistant Superintendent for Business, Jeff Baer. Under the proposed list of cuts offered by Stinson in his "Fiscal Restructuring Plan", he suggests that closing the Armstrong Pavilion to community members will save the district $170,000 a year.

First of all, I can't see how you can save money if you still have the building open for school uses, but are losing the revenue from selling memberships, no matter how modest the dues are.

Ignoring that, though, one does have to question Stinson's priorities.

Why take away from the community what was built expressly for them? Why close the Pavilion to the community when Stinson still fully intends on moving the Central Office Administrators and staff over to the plush digs of the Southwest Pavilion Office Building (former Concentra Building)? Why try to save $170,000, even if its possible, when Stinson and Baer refuse to look at selling off their considerable real estate portfolio first? That portfolio is worth about $6 million and would go a long way to covering the $9.8 million shortfall, which is almost all due to Stinson and Baer's profligate spending. If they sold off just a small lot, they could keep the Armstrong Pavilion open to the Community.