This story is courtesy of The Arnold Sentinel. It first appeared in their October 24, 2024 issue. You may subscribe to The Arnold Sentinel here.
The Arnold School Board approved building a new concession stand at the track at their regular meeting held on October 15. The 30’x60’ building will be located to the south of the old concession stand, which will become storage.
The new stand will feature a ticket booth, covered concession windows, a breezeway with picnic tables and hightop counters, and handicap accessible men’s and women’s restrooms, and two 8×10 garage doors.
“The new concession stand will be way more accessible. It will open things up and make the experience better. People will be able to get out of the elements and stand and eat, and utilize the walk-in or the garage door areas. It will be bigger and more adequate for electrical,” said Superintendent Joel Morgan.
Funding for the $130,000.00 project will come from the special building fund. No new levy dollars will be needed.
Mr. Morgan said that decisive decisions made by the building and grounds committee, and ultimately the Board, make both the school and community better. The decision on a new concession stand is a prime example.
“Arnold School has $2.3 million in investments on the special building fund, and we’re growing interest annually to help with projects like this,” he said. “We want to be at the forefront. We want to be the hub as far as MNAC and other track invitationals and the place where people want to go. If we’re going to do something, we want to do it right. We’ve seen it time and time again. I think that’s the way the Board has always been.”
At the date of the meeting, the school expected dirt work for the building to begin in a couple of weeks and from there, concrete will be poured and the building will go up so that finish work can be done this winter. The goal is to have the concession stand up and running by the first track meet of 2025.
Editor’s note: The current concession stand was built in 1984. One of the big features of that new build were restrooms. Up to that point, concessions were served out of an old horse barn that was moved in from the old race track at the rodeo grounds south of town, and an outhouse was available “on the hill.”
