Steamboat Pilot & Today

It's a good thing that every member of the Hayden High School track team didn't make it to last night's Hayden Board of Trustees meeting.

The ones that showed up along with track supporters and other residents filled the Town Hall meeting room, overflowed into the hall and continued out the door.

The crowd had come to show its support for a new track facility for the high school team and community to use, because the current gravel track behind the high school does not meet the standards to hold home track meets.

Previous requests from the Hayden Board of Education for a new track were turned down. No one came to the Town Board requesting a track when the town's master plan was being created, and therefore the final plan did not include one.

Hayden residents Jeff Fry and Tami Green asked the Town Board to consider changing the master plan in order to accommodate a track facility.

Hayden High School track coach Kevin Kleckler said the team would be pursuing funds for the track but does not want to get taxpayers involved.

"If we work together, we can build something fantastic," assistant track coach Sally Brach said. "We can't do it by ourselves, and nobody's going to do it for us, so it will have to take all of us working together."

Trustee Tim Frentress asked Brach where the team wanted to the track to be located, and Brach said it didn't matter.

Hayden resident David Walker said a track would not be limited to just high school athletes; residents might also enjoy a safe, well-lighted place to walk.

But several said the track should be built simply for the sake of the young athletes. Kleckler said more than 40 percent of the students at the high school and middle school are on the team.

"Having a better track will make us better athletes," track co-captain Jaclyn Etzler said.

Mayor Chuck Grobe said the Town Board needs to finish negotiations with the School Board for the realignment of Third Street and Breeze Basin Boulevard before pursuing a track.

But surveyor Gordon Dowling said the board "shouldn't let political issues with the School Board interfere with this." Dowling surveyed the lot where the current track sits and determined it would be impossible to build a regulation-size, eight-lane track there.

Further discussion on a new track facility will continue at the next Board of Trustees meeting May 15.

In other business, the board approved a townwide garage sale to be held June 14 centered on Walnut Street, at the request of business owner Pamm McFadden.

The sale has been dubbed "The Walnut Street Flea Market," in which anyone in town can rent a booth on Walnut Street for $15 or be mentioned in a map advertising a home garage sale for $5.

The board said it would be safest to close the street during the sale.

The board also approved an agreement between the town and Winston and Associates to complete an impact study on a 900-acre subdivision proposal called Sunburst Ranch. However, the agreement will not be signed until the town receives $61,490 from 4S Development to pay for the study.

Also, the board approved a three-year contract with Triple Crown Sports, a national organization of club sports teams, for the use of Hayden's two baseball fields west of the elementary school.