CORRECTIONVILLE, Iowa | Terra Heilman, a junior at River Valley High School in Correctionville, sounded like an economic development spokesperson while describing improvements to her high school and swimming pool late last summer.
"We think that the new pool and the changes at the school might bring in some more families," she said.
Heilman, one of 10 lifeguards serving the Correctionville Swimming Pool last summer, demonstrated the speed and excitement of the new slide. She then ducked under the waterfall in a mushroom-shaped fountain, part of the zero-depth entry pool, which opened July 4.
"Since not all the kids in the pool are in one area now, we've heard that kids feel safer," said Ashley Hunwardsen, the pool manager who was about to embark on her junior year at Northwest Missouri State University. "It's all come together very well."
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Three construction projects highlighted last summer in Correctionville, a city of 821 residents that straddles U.S. Highway 20. That's the first project: The expansion of four-lane Highway 20 through Northwest Iowa.
Heilman worked her way around the orange cones in the highway construction area as she drove west from home in Cushing, Iowa, to Correctionville, where she toiled as a lifeguard.
The second set of cones surrounded the 30-year-old pool, which received a much-needed facelift over the summer after voters in 2015 approved a $600,000 bond issue to help finance the construction project, tabbed at $1,052,000. Grundman Hicks of Cherokee, Iowa, served as primary contractor in an effort that saw a new liner, new deck, new stairs upon which to enter the pool and a pair of handicap-accessible seats. Workers also fixed damaged pipes beneath the old pool.
At the adjacent River Valley school complex, workers have spent the academic year constructing a new junior high gymnasium and concession stand, part of a $2.4 million upgrade at both the high school and River Valley Elementary School in nearby Washta.
"We replaned and refinished the floor in the main high school gym this summer," said Superintendent Ken Slater. "We'll have drop-down batting cages, six baskets and six rows of bleachers on one side of the new gym, which will host most of our junior high practices and games, as well as games during high school volleyball tournaments."
River Valley sixth-graders are coming to the high school site this year for the first time. Their move allowed work to be done at the site in Washta, work that has seen the old library renovated into a pair of fifth-grade classrooms. The Washta Public Library, which has been housed in the elementary school for years, has been moved and has a dedicated entrance to enhance security for the elementary school.
Slater noted that the district spent $500,000 in SAVE (the old local-option sales and services tax for school infrastructure) funds up front and will borrow against those funds over eight years to finance the work.
