In this episode of "Laying the Foundation," join host Skyler as he sits down with Troy Keilig, one of our principal architects at CMBA Architects, and Jeff Jensen, the Superintendent at Central City High School. Together, they delve into the innovative Dome Gymnasium project designed by our team. Funded through FEMA, this multifunctional facility not only serves as a vibrant hub for sports games and activities but also doubles as a vital community shelter during emergencies. Tune in as they explore the unique challenges, design considerations, and transformative impact of this remarkable project on both the school and the broader community.
Stream Now
Episode Transcript
Skyler: Welcome to another episode of laying the foundation.
Skyler: All right. Welcome everybody to another episode of laying the foundation. Uh, my name is Skylar. I'm your host. And today I am here, uh, Troy, who is one of our architects from the green Island, uh, office and a phenomenal, wonderful guest to have on the show. We have Jeff Jensen from the central city high school.
Skyler: He's the superintendent over there. Jeff, welcome to the show. Hey,
Jeff: thanks for having me.
Skyler: Appreciate it. Absolutely. So we're super excited to have you, uh, right after I started, I went down to a convention, uh, over in Nebraska for K 12 with Troy and Matt, uh, Kreitzer, and you were there and the three of you all kind of participated in a presentation talking about the central city, uh, Dome and FEMA shelter that you guys had worked on and I was absolutely blown away and also a little bit frustrated that I didn't have my recording equipment on me on that day because it would have made it a lot easier to just kind of record that presentation.
Skyler: Oh my gosh, this is an incredible story. So I'm glad that we finally get to sit down and talk about it now. Super excited to kind of re, uh, see through the entire process of that. So maybe from, uh, from starting from the beginning, Jeff, uh, what was it that really got you? Started on this project. What was it that kind of sparked that need or that necessity that made you guys lean looking into how to put this all together?
Jeff: Well, you know, our, our project started all the way back in January of 2018. So, I mean, we're, we're 6 years removed from that at this point, which kind of tells you really from beginning to end how long this whole thing took. Uh, and really on our end, it, it took place with, uh, you know, we had a 1968 high school building, um, starting to show some age, um, not necessarily meeting the needs of current students, um, and, and just really the wave of the future with education.
Jeff: So, um, you know, we were having a lot of meetings with, uh, community members, uh, trying to bring in, uh, Um, stakeholders and certain different areas that, you know, you're trying to hit farmers, you're trying to hit teachers, you're trying to hit, you know, businesses, you're trying to hit a wide variety of different people, uh, to give us a little bit of direction.
Jeff: We knew, we knew we needed to do something. We knew we had to do something. And really this, this face of school is a lot is, is, you know, spend X amount of money now or spend a lot more money later. And I think we were kind of at that crossroads and, uh, we thought we did a lot of things, right. Um, we brought in all these different stakeholders and, and really directed us kind of in between time.
Jeff: Um, you know, our, our focus was, uh, you know, how much do we need to do? Uh, how much do we want to do? And, and also knowing that the costs were going to go up over a long term period. And, um, so really in the end of all those stakeholders meeting, it came down Uh, we're going to focus heavy on careers, you know, uh, focus on the industrial tech area.
Jeff: So you're welding, uh, manufacturing, um, construction and auto areas as well as your sciences, um, your businesses, your, uh, your, your I. T. areas as well as making secure offices, what not. And reality is, is as we were settling into that, that the approach was also to build a gym. You know, we had our, our gym here in the middle school built in 1994.
Jeff: Uh, it's a nice facility, but unfortunately it just wasn't big enough. And you know, you, your competition gym ended up being in the middle school. So, um, that was the other thing that was, uh, decided to address again. We had like 75 people, I believe 72 out of the 75 said, you know, go for everything because we need it and we need it now.
Jeff: So we were looking at about a 15 million project. Uh, you know, this is where the story kind of gets crazy. Um, you know, we're, we're talking rectangle gym, um, kind of standard, what everybody else sees. Uh, really kind of wanted it open to the commons area. But beyond that, um, pretty standard, pretty normal.
Jeff: I'd have a walking track on the top, but, um, it was gonna be rectangle box just like everybody else's. And, um, you know, good or bad. Uh, we had a board member that decided that he didn't want to sleep, which I don't know if he ever does sleep. Um, two a. m. He's out there Google search and everything and comes up with this dome idea that, you know, by the morning, which I think was about four o'clock because he still hadn't slept.
Jeff: Um, you know, he's sending us a text going, Hey, we got to look at this dome thing. And you know, we're kind of like, ah, Brett, you know, you need to go to bed. You know, what are you thinking as we wake up to these texts? You know, he pleaded saying, just, just look into it, just look into it. Um, by noon, I'd done a little bit of Googling on it and, um, man, you started looking at these dome structures.
Jeff: And. And, uh, you know, kind of different, a little bit odd, uh, but you start looking at the insides of them and man, this, this is really cool. And, uh, you know, this might meet the needs of it. And, and, uh, you know, so you get this arena look that not many high schools have, um, but then more importantly, on my end, it's like, oh my gosh, FEMA's part of this and, you know, they pay for 75 percent of the structure and, and, and you know, how we're always caught talking about, you know, it's thinking outside of the box when it comes to school expenditures and, you know, Um, man, that really was intriguing.
Jeff: And so, you know, that, that's kind of where, you know, the, everything got wheels, got traction and. Um, all of a sudden we're taking tours and, and, uh, you know, we're going down to Kinsley, Kansas. We're going to Dodge City, Kansas. Then we're heading over to Missouri and hitting Web City. And in the end, ours looks a lot like Web City 'cause that's the one that we, we modeled after.
Jeff: Um, it looks a little bit like Dodge City and, and I'll say it doesn't look anything like Kinsley. So, um, that, that, that's kinda how we evolved. You know, and again, I think anytime we start talking about this is in the end of all these projects, we got a high school facility that is updated for the future.
Jeff: Um, our industrial tech areas are awesome. Nobody has any, you know, it has really what we have. Um, our science rooms again, not a whole lot of schools have what we have at this point. We have a commons that looks like a college, a small college type of setting. And, um, you know, everybody talks about the dome because, of course, we had Husker volleyball out here.
Jeff: You know, a little over a year ago. And, and so that, that's what everybody talks about, but, you know, our, our dome is impressive, but our whole facility is very impressive.
Skyler: Yeah, absolutely. So Troy, from the design side, what, what did that look like getting uh, approached by central city? Like what was kind of the, the lead up to that, that ended up leading to, Hey, change the scope of this into this FEMA shelter slash high school gym and everything else?
Skyler: Like what was kind of the process that led into that?
Troy: Yeah, so when Central City reached out and wanted to talk about and brought this idea of the dome and if we had any history of any type of dome before, we, we had never looked at them. So we, we started thinking about this and I was like, well, we're going to have to do some research and see if it's even possible up here.
Troy: And also to make sure FEMA would be willing to Bring in some funding for it. So after looking and researching and looking them up on the internet and seeing what other districts had done in more, more Southern, we're like, if we can get FEMA funding for this, we can make something like this work. Um, and looking at the amount of land that it would take up, um, central city had a nice spot where it would fit nicely and come right off our commons areas.
Troy: And we would be able to create a. a really good facility there. With that, we ended up taking some tours going down with the school district and we went down to Missouri and I think on that trip we visited like four different domes that were in Missouri. The last one looking at was Webb City, um, which is down in Joplin area where they had tornadoes come through.
Troy: So they had a lot of FEMA money after that came through and they ended up putting up a really nice dome. With that one, they were able to have basically almost a two story dome where you walk in at an upper level and you walk, you're able to walk down to the court. In Central City we had to kind of change that a little bit because of water tables really high there so we were, we weren't able to dig down into the ground.
Troy: Um, and that's a big change between the two facilities is just the layout inside. The whole process was It's really interesting because we're bringing in this new type of construction that hadn't been really done in Nebraska before and creating a way to, creative idea to make this happen so Central City could have this, a new gym, new locker room space, but have help funding it from FEMA so it wasn't a big, as big of an expense for the district itself.
Skyler: Right, right. So when it comes to the process of filing for these, this FEMA funding, uh, did, did you guys get any, like, what's kind of the process? What does that look like? I'm assuming somebody probably had to kind of come down and, and look over, you know, the designs and the ideas and, and approve whether or not it fit within, you know, the scope of getting that funding or what kind of was the process there?
Jeff: You know, the, the overall grant writing process took 32 months, you know, and, and, and, and Total construction. I mean, we were over about four and a half years by the time you talked about the beginning of the grant to the final, Hey, we're ready to open, uh, to the point of that project. So, you know, it gets a little bit scary, a little bit overwhelming when you first start looking at it.
Jeff: Um, to be honest, the beginning of it is just an NOI out to the state, which, uh, is just a notice of an intent. And that's super simple. Uh, it takes about 15 minutes to put together. And that's really the, the only easy part of it is that very beginning and final end of the state. So, uh, it, the state approves it.
Jeff: They'll push it forward. In our case, we want a federally competitive PDM grant, meaning we were up against the rest of the nation, um, out of the gate, uh, that that started kind of in April of 2000 and 18, um, and, and that was really pushed because by the time we were having these meetings in January, uh, to where in April rolled around, Um, we really only had a month to get everything put together.
Jeff: By the time we toured, looked at it saying, okay, this is the option we want. Hey, they're built 30 percent cheaper. You get a FEMA grants. Uh, let's put this in there. So, I mean, we had a rush to get that in by the end of April, uh, at least to the state. Um, and then from there, Um, they accepted that over the summer and then we went really through a long grant process at that point.
Jeff: And then, you know, really that that following year is when they accepted our grant, just didn't fund it. And that was because of the floods that hit the state of Nebraska in 2019. So, you know, that was grant right number one. Um, We, we, we would like to say that we wrote that grant ourselves. Uh, we, we reached out to a gal in Texas that we'd heard had, uh, written several of these.
Jeff: So, so she was kind of our, our initial out of the gate gal that we used, um, because she had a lot of experience in it. Um, overall that grant, that isn't just one page like the NOI is. It's hundreds of pages, uh, that need to be put together as well as, Um, the more people you can put in within a half a mile radius equals more dollars for you.
Jeff: Right. So we, I think we ended up counting, uh, uh, July evening, um, because you had people home from work, uh, or the park full of, of kids because the softball was going on with all three fields full. Um, and then also the, the pool was full. And by the way, we also had kind of a, a seven on seven football game going on that night too.
Jeff: The more numbers we could maximize in that equaled more money. Um, and so that, that was kind of the game that we were playing with out at the gate. Um, unfortunately again, we got approved, but we just didn't get funded, which led us then to multiple months then of going back down the road because now we had to switch from, from, You know, the federal grant to the state side of it, which is an H.
Jeff: G. M. P. Grant. And, you know, the whole time that Nima, which is FEMA's version for the state level. Hey, this is the number one project. We really like this, but we have to deal with all the flood victims first, which made sense. You know, I mean, the money that came from the state of Nebraska was from the flooding.
Jeff: They need to deal with the flood victims first and really you know, from the time we rewrote an NIA or NOI again, uh, until hearing back from them that we've been approved. I mean, another year and a half went along, um, of just not knowing where we're at and, uh, really once we were approved by the state, um, and you got to remember too, we evolved a lot with price, um, our original NOI for the PDM was like, I think 2.
Jeff: 3 million roughly. Um, by the time that we were approved by the state saying, Hey, we want to push your project. Um, now we're at 3. 2. Remember, by the time construction was done, we were at over 4 million coming from, from FEMA. Uh, so things just continue to evolve and, uh, We had to stay with it. So the, you know, once we were approved to send it off to the federal government, that, that was our second rewrite at that point.
Jeff: Um, and then FEMA or NEMA really kind of gave us a, another curve ball is, is, you know, they noticed that Central City was growing. Um, they also noticed that. These could be really important projects to the state of Nebraska, um, and for communities. Uh, and so they came back and said, you know what, build it a little bit bigger, you know, build it to how you want it to, um, don't scale anything back because again, Central City's growing.
Jeff: Uh, we like this project. Um, so that was our third rewrite and the second, third rewrite we did ourselves. And so, you know, Um, it was, it was a lot of, uh, that that's really when, you know, the pen hit the paper and a lot of work and effort had to go to, uh, moving forward. So they also approved then that we could hire an architect.
Jeff: And so we did that in the fall of 2020. So, I mean, again, years and months are going by as we go through this process. And, but then we finally officially got the grant in December of 2020. Um, so you just kind of follow along that. And then of course, you're not going to bid until March of 2021. Right. And guess what prices did between all that time.
Jeff: So we had to do a couple of amendments in there too, which they accepted our amendments and that's where we grew over 4 million. Now, again, You know, a lot of work went into this project, but at the same time, remember that a lot of luck also came with it. And so it was kind of, we weren't lucky just once, we were lucky multiple times.
Jeff: And, uh, you know, in terms of the lot of land that we had, just barely, um, big enough. Um, otherwise we were starting to encroach on the highway and, and that was kind of luck how that all happened to where some things got scaled back and that ended up working out also on the lucky side, you know, we wanted to go see him at risk.
Jeff: Um, you know, unfortunately we weren't able to do that with the federal grant. So we went to design bid build that ended up being a win for us there to, um, construction costs. We just talked about how they went up a little bit, but man, when we locked things in, it was. Right before they went crazy. So that's again, another luck piece.
Jeff: And you know, we leased 3 million. We got that for 0. 95 percent interest. I mean, which is unheard of right now, you know, and that money's locked in the bank for 0. 94%. Um, because you can't make money on the money you're leasing. Exactly. So again, another lucky piece of that as well. So just kind of over and over again, we lucked out, you know, Husker volleyball.
Jeff: You can sit there and say that that's a great thing. Um, a lot of effort goes into it, but yet it's also lucky because, you know, you've got to have John Cook and the gals saying, yes, we'll come there. Great for our community, uh, at that point too. So really long story short, I mean, I would, I'd like to say that this is something that other people can model and I think other people will try to, I know one's going up right now in Logan Magnolia, uh, which is in Iowa.
Jeff: Um, but the grant process is long, um, as well as you got to hit, you know, hit the right buttons at the right time and, and have the right things happen as well. So. Absolutely.
AD:: Attention architecture professionals, are you looking for an employment opportunity that will provide you with a wonderful work culture and a competitive pay rate?
AD:: Look no further than CMBA Architects. Our firm offers flexible scheduling. A casual dress code and a great work environment that will help you collaborate and create. Plus, who doesn't love having Fridays off?
Skyler: To learn more about our available positions, visit the careers page at CMBAarchitects. com and apply to join the CMBA team.
Skyler: And then when it comes to the community throughout this entire process, they were involved to some extent. How, I mean, what all, uh, kind of, did you guys have to take to the community? How all did the community kind of contribute to this project and what kind of views did they have on it as it was kind of being developed?
Jeff: Well, originally we, we had a bond going and so we had passed the bond, um, that did not include, originally it included kind of, as we stated earlier, it included then the whole gym, rectangular gym that then involved into the dome. Um, we failed that bond and not in November. Um, and so that was in November of, I believe, 2018, uh, we had failed that and we didn't wait our six months.
Jeff: We took the gym off reconfigured some things. Um, again, talking about luck, reconfiguring things made it, You know, work better as a facility, um, as we went to plan B, um, and in terms of the future of our facility as well. And so, um, in March, we have 19 then we did pass that bond because again, we didn't wait 60 or six months came back right away.
Jeff: And at that time, we did some renovations at our elementary, um, We also added a preschool at our elementary. Phase one also included then conspiratorially changing our SPED area, in which became much more cost efficient for us as a district, as we didn't contract out anymore, didn't send kids to Columbus, saved them on the travel side.
Jeff: And phase two, which was still part of that bond, then started later on, in which that was then a secure entrance at the middle school, high school, new commons area, new office areas. Uh, greatly enhanced our science rooms, our industrial tech area, and then converted our old gym, um, get prepared to then convert our old gym then as well.
Jeff: So that took our 1968 building and made it look new. And again, did that right at the right time, because if we didn't do it, then a lot more money was going to be spent down the road. So, right.
Skyler: So, uh, Troy, talk to me about the design process for a dome. As we mentioned before, I mean, we've designed schools, we've designed gymnasiums, but.
Skyler: Uh, uh, FEMA shelter mixed with a gymnasium is kind of something a little bit new to us. What was kind of the process with that?
Troy: Well, a lot of it came into research and really layout. It's, it's a different entity. I mean, it's a circle. Um, so you got to be able to, you're so used to fitting square rooms in a square space, but now you have to develop rooms that can fit Around in with curved wall.
Troy: And a lot of this was we needed locker rooms. We needed a training space. We needed storage and it really led to with the gym. Also basketball court is rectangular. So you're putting a rectangular square in the round circle and developing everything to fit around it, which had actually worked out really well.
Troy: Um, we have. The locker room's all on the first floor. Um, we have the referee space on the first floor, storage and training all on the main level. And then on the upper level where we have a walking track, we actually have additional seating for the gymnasium and we have a video room and. All of the mechanical is up on the second floor also.
Troy: Creating the space and what all is entailed to make it a FEMA rated shelter. Because if you, if you don't know what a monolithic dome is, it's concrete from the foundation all the way to the peak of the dome. First part, first part of it is the foundation. We have a stem wall that's up to 20, 20 feet up.
Troy: And then from that point on, we have the actual monolithic dome, which is the rebar from the stem wall, reaches up into the concrete that is spread on the, on the roof. Basically, it's an airfoil membrane that is attached to the top of the stem wall. And then from inside, It's blown up like a balloon. And then the contractor comes in and, and lays out rebar.
Troy: And then they use a, use a product called shotcrete, which is basically concrete that's able to be blown in and with insulation. So they would go up in layers to fulfill the air form. And then that. That air form material is now the rough membrane of the facility. So everything on the inside is concrete.
Troy: Um, and that's what gives it its inherent FEMA rating. Um, because the thickness of the concrete all meets all the, all the requirements that FEMA, FEMA needs. But with that, you also have to realize. Everything around on the exterior is a circle and curve. So we're putting doors and curved walls. We're putting air vents and everything in curved walls.
Troy: So it does add to some design elements, but it's also gives it its own look because of the round, but we also wanted it to fit in with the school and not. Like stand out as a dome, so trying to use some of the same materials throughout the from that we've done on the previous parts of the building because as we've talked about before that we've been the architect of record on Central City Public Schools, even before we were CMBA, so we're able to tie in every element of the school together.
Troy: So it all fits as it seems like one building. All the colors match, all the bricks match as close as we can, but we also wanted to look modern so that it doesn't look like it's an aged building. So I think everything fits well with the building and bringing and tying all the colors throughout really helps feel as a campus with the project.
Skyler: Yeah, absolutely. Uh, I remember you guys talking about the durability of the facility based on how it's designed. Can you talk to me a little bit about that? Like, as a FEMA shelter, what is kind of that goal there? And, and what is it capable of sort of protecting against, I suppose?
Troy: Right. Um, so basically we are, Central cities in Tornado Alley.
Troy: Right. And so that is why we were able to get FEMA funding for this facility. So it has to be able to withstand 250 mile an hour wind. All the doors have to be able to be rated at that also. It has to withstand a two by four That's eight foot long impact at 250 miles an hour,
Skyler: right?
Troy: So everything's built beefy.
Troy: Everything's, everything's designed for that strength. Um, and so it does make changes a little more difficult as you're dealing with it. Cause everything has to be able to be rated at that, um, that it's on the exterior. So with that, All our exterior doors are rated at that. All of our fresh air vents are rated at that also.
Troy: It's just, it just creates a little more, you have to be more creative when you're designing. So where we made the connection to the school is actually a rated, rated entrance area. So we actually have rated coil doors that go up and down, that they're typically open, um, for the most part until it has to be, you know, A shelter, then those get shut.
Troy: Um, otherwise it's, it's the main entrance from the commons area into the gym. There's actually a open area with glass windows. So you can see into the gym from the, from the commons area, which, which is a benefit anymore, because with the way, especially with the Husker volleyball being there, I mean, it was packed house, people could stand and watch from behind the glass area.
Troy: But then if the shelter storm had to happen. You could shut those roll up doors and it is a secure facility.
Skyler: Awesome. Awesome. So as far as challenges go along the way, once you guys got the grant, there was obviously all the challenges kind of involved with, with how that all went. Um, there was a lot of, as Jeff, as you mentioned, the luck aspect that kind of came in and, and kind of helped push you guys along on this project.
Skyler: Were there anything once construction kind of started and the design process kind of moved into that? Were there any challenges that you guys had to overcome along that extent of the process?
Jeff: I think first of all, everybody needs to remember any construction. It doesn't matter how big, how small you're always going to have some challenges that come up.
Jeff: I don't think, uh, I don't think you're ever going to avoid that. And, and really for us, you know, there's, there's limited dome companies that are out there, you know, and, and, you know, when you talk about a dome in Nebraska or Iowa or Kansas, they're not going to come from Nebraska, Iowa, or Kansas. And so they're going to, uh, these manufacturers come from Idaho.
Jeff: They come from Texas or they come from California. I believe there's only four or five of those. Subcontractors or contractors that are out there that exist. So, uh, in our case, we were a little bit different too. We wanted a low profile dome. We didn't want it to look real domey. You know, that's something that when we looked at, you know, Kinsley or, or Dodge city, you know, that, that thing looked like it went forever, uh, into this eye.
Jeff: And so we want, we wanted a low profile look good when you're coming north or south on highway 14. And, uh, so we elected that route. And so we chose one of the companies out of Idaho or out of Idaho. They happen to be right across from the street from each other. And so we remember you're, you're kind of at the mercy of them getting there on time and that.
Jeff: And so that was a huge challenge because, you know, they didn't necessarily perform out of the gate. Um, we got to where we needed to, but you know, central city's dome. It's 176 foot diameter to us. That is really big. But if you think about it in the Middle East or in China, um, where they're building some of these for, for different purposes, you know, they're 300 feet in diameter.
Jeff: So ours, ours is small, small compared to a lot of these things that are used. You know, ours is an educational setting or a gymnasium setting, uh, very different than some of the times that they use. So, uh, they had to get people here and, and that was one of our struggles. Gotcha.
Skyler: Yeah. And then once they got there, you know, there's the whole process.
Skyler: I know, uh, I mean, thankfully, you know, as people that are doing this and building these facilities and that's kind of what they specialize in, there's kind of that positive side is that they, they know what they're doing and they can kind of put it all together. But, uh, it's definitely a different process.
Skyler: And as I mentioned with, uh, Troy is that, you know, Being able to design a facility like that obviously is a bit of a challenge in and of itself, I'm sure.
Troy: And I think one thing when you're thinking about the design of it, as it's going into construction, you have to realize that once the dome starts going up, the dome contractor is the only one That can be working inside that facility.
Troy: They, they do not want any other subcontractors in there because they have a limited timeframe of getting that air air membrane up and then getting all the concrete blown in and finished on the inside. Um, so they didn't want any other contractors in their way. So while after we got the stem wall up and we were still waiting on the dome contractor, Our general contractor was in there getting as much stuff as he could get done because we needed to stay on a time frame to get this done on time.
Troy: So then once the contract, the dome contractor showed up, all the subs had to go out to the exterior or were off the site until the dome was constructed.
Skyler: Right, right. Definitely kind of, we're here for a very specific reason. Please stay out of our way so we can get our side of work done. Yep. That makes sense.
Skyler: Awesome. And then since it's construction and since it's been, uh, completed and everything, have, have we had to use it for any, any circumstances, any FEMA related, you know, kind of emergencies, any tornadoes or anything like that?
Jeff: Yeah. So we did, uh, Merritt County. So the way we're structured is if there's a tornado warning that is issued by.
Jeff: Uh, Noah, uh, for Merrick County. So the, the, the doors on the exterior automatically open up and, you know, kind of how that's phrased is they have to be open for at least five minutes, but they can't be open for longer than 10 minutes. Uh, so for no other reason, but splitting it, we chose eight minutes. We did have a, a, a summer.
Jeff: Tornado warning that was issued in July of, of 2023, um, doors all opened up. Everything worked out really good. We had 75 patrons that used that as well as five dogs. So they, they came to the facility and used it until the, the storm warning was over then. So, you know, that was a kind of a night where not a lot was going on.
Jeff: You know, there was no softball going on. There was no baseball going on. I would assume that we're so close to the softball fields and whatnot that, you know, in the event that there was games going on that night, that you would have saw a lot more people usually utilize that facility. You know, Troy mentioned earlier that, you know, we're in Tornado Alley, which, which allowed us for the grant dollars, you know, what's also unique about central city is it's a very flat, uh, community.
Jeff: And then on top of that, our water table is, you don't have to go very deep to find water. So therefore, most of our community does not have basements either. Some areas don't even allow for crawl spaces just because, again, that, that water table is so, uh, so high. So, you know, this is something that's definitely important for our community, uh, to be able to access something like this into, in terms of, uh, in the event of, uh, severe weather.
Skyler: Absolutely. And it, I think that's where it really comes down to is it's amazing facility that's able to not only help the high school and bring in people from the outside for sports games and all that kind of stuff, but it's also this FEMA shelter that's going to protect people. Um, and like you said, you know, with the water table and everything.
Skyler: Some of the resources are a little bit limited to the safety of people within that community. So having this FEMA shelter is just so, so key and so useful to the community for that purpose. So
Jeff: absolutely as a school district, it's a, it's a gymnasium for us, you know, and I'm not gonna, you know, sugarcoat that, but for the community, it's a, it's a, it's a storm shelter.
Jeff: And then the other big, big key for this is for us as a school district, when you have to get creative with your dollars, it's, it's another financial resource for us to get something done.
Skyler: Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, that's all the questions that I had off the top of my head. Is there anything that you guys wanted to mention that I haven't brought up yet?
Skyler: Because I don't want to, I don't want to miss anything for sure, but this is an awesome project and I know that you guys having worked through so much of it, there's probably plenty of stories that you could tell, but like I said, I mean, I'm out of questions on my end. Is there anything that I missed?
Jeff: You know, I, I guess I would just like to add that, uh, you know, since this thing is opened, um, again, December of, uh, December 1st of 2022, um, we have done now over 60 tours, just, just people that want to see the dome, you know, and I think now we have alumni groups that are creating different years just so they can come in and see it as well.
Jeff: And we're Um, so you're not the typical 5, 10, 20, um, 50 types of reunions. It's all of a sudden we have a 13th year reunion that we want to come in just to see the dome, but for, as a school district, you know, for me, anytime we give a tour, you know, we don't let them just see the dome. You know, we, we take them down to, you know, the science rooms and the industrial tech area and the performing arts center and all the other things that have been done because, you know, schools don't do this, um, for the athletic side, schools do these types of things to better, um, you know, Um, the environment for their students in all aspects.
Jeff: And that's something that's been really awesome here is in the last nine years, you know, we've done something for every single athletic activity, uh, and most importantly, the academic settings within our, uh, district. Absolutely.
Skyler: It's always kind of a, one of those things where as, as alumni, you go back to your school and you see all the cool new things and you're like, man, I wish I had had that when I was here.
Skyler: But obviously it also kind of creates a, uh, Hey, keep supporting us because we're doing new things and we're helping students to graduate and go on to, you know, incredible new opportunities through the facilities that we're able to offer here.
Jeff: Absolutely. You know, and in our community, our alumni, I mean, they're, they're pretty excited what's been done.
Troy: And I also think with this, that's really exciting is. This long term relationship that we've had with Central City Public Schools has developed that we can have these conversations about trying new things, new facilities, new looks. Um, we're able to have those conversations back and forth and explore different things because of We know each other, we have conversations all the time.
Troy: I mean, we're still, we're looking forward at the next project now with Central City. So it's, this relationship has really helped establish what the facility is growing to be. And it's been amazing.
Skyler: Yeah. We love working with, uh, with Central City and the amazing projects that we've gotten to do. And this obviously is a, is just a keystone project right here in and of itself of, of something brand new, something that we've never done before.
Skyler: And now. It's something that's been done and we can show it off to people and say, look at this incredible facility and look what amazing opportunities it's brought to the community that it serves. Well, I really appreciate both of you taking the time out of your day to sit down with me and talk about this project on the podcast and share the experiences that went with it.
Skyler: I'm sure there'll be plenty of other, you know, K 12 communities and so on like that, that want to Learn about this, learn about the funding opportunity for FEMA shelters, and maybe be able to integrate that into their future projects as well. So seriously, thank you both so much for taking the time to talk with me today.
Skyler: Thanks everybody. If you'd like to find out more about the laying the foundation podcast, you can head over to any podcast streaming platform, such as Spotify, iTunes, Google podcasts, and others. You can also find out more about CMBA Architects through social media such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.
Skyler: Additionally, you can head over to the CMBA website at cmbaarchitects. com. If you're an architecture or design professional or an intern looking for an internship within those fields, please be sure to check out our website and click on the careers tab to find out more about what opportunities we offer.
Skyler: This has been another episode of the Laying the Foundation podcast. We'll see you next time.
Tags:
July 11, 2024