New competition tennis courts at LaGrange Elementary School took another step forward Thursday.

The Tomah School Board voted 7-0, to move forward with a $250,000 project to build seven new competition courts at LaGrange contingent on a favorable soil testing report.

Board members rejected renovating the tennis courts at Tomah High School for $362,000. Soil conditions at the high school would have required five feet of excavation and removal of the lights.

Board President Dave Stutzman said new courts at the high school is a risky option.

“There are no guarantees that they’ll last very long,” Stutzman said. “I would hate to spend that kind of money on a gamble. I do think we need to get the LaGrange courts underway.”

The board deferred a decision on a less expensive fix for the existing high school courts. It would either replace the existing waffle board courts ($120,000) or install a layer of blacktop (a rough estimate of $160,000). Another $50,000 would be required to landscape existing green space.

Stutzman said some kind of tennis facility at the high school is needed for the physical education curriculum.

“We still have to provide some playing surfaces at the high school no matter what,” Stutzman said.

The new courts at LaGrange would not include lights, which would add another $320,000 to the project.

The playing surface at the high school courts has been a point of contention among Mississippi Valley Conference girls and boys tennis coaches for several years. This spring, the Tomah boys were forced to play all their matches on the road when a large crack developed in one of the courts.

On another facilities issue, the board voted, 7-0, to approve a $28,000 project to refinish the two gymnasium floors at Tomah High School. The floor in the main gymnasium will be painted with the new Tomah Timberwolves logo and include paw prints that lead diagonally across the

See Courts, page 4A